Friday, September 5, 2008

Do you have constant pain under your left rib cage?

By Steven Beartoes


Back pain under the left rib cage is a dilemma for all patients suffering from it. Any constant pain is viewed by doctors as a very serious disorder or disease and requires immediate attention and cure. The rib cage is a formation that is composed by the thoracic vertebrae and ribs, sternum-breastbone, and the coastal cartilages that links the ribs to the sternum. The term cage is defined as a structure to house animals. The rib cage is a similar structure which houses and also protects the animal heart and lungs, also known as a thoracic cage in medical terms.

In the thorax-chest, nerves exit from the spine and bifurcate into two parts. One part goes up to just under the skin and sends fibers to the surface and further travels around half way around the chest. This could be a probable reason for pain feeling in the back to the side of the chest. Second part travels deep under the bottom of the rib around to the sternum-chest bone, comes up to the skin and runs back toward the side on the same level as the other branch. Pain in the rib cage can include any pain or discomfort in the area of ribs.

A fractured or cracked rib can cause rib cage pain, costochondritis, inflammation of the cartilage near the breastbone, osteoporosis and pleurisy. If you do encounter such ribcage you must first get the area x-rayed so as to determine if your ribs are fractured. In the event of a fractured rib an immediate surgery should be scheduled. If you've been suffering this pain for a long period of time (3 months or more) it's necessary to go for an MRI or CT scan and consult a professional to check for nerve damage, tumor or cancer.

Pain due to inflammation of cartilage between ribs and breastbone can radiate around the back and down the arms. Such type of pain could be enormous enough to give you a syndrome that you are having a heart attack or lung problems. Though this condition is benign but it is very painful and uncomfortable during the period it lasts.

There may be times when you will visit a gastroenterologist because of the constant back pain under your left rib cage because the problem starts with your stomach. You might often feel hungry and the feel the urge to let out a big growl, no matter how much you eat it still does not matter, but instead results in heart burn and pain on the left side underneath the cage. To eliminate the possibility of an infection of the intestine or pancreas routine blood pathology is conducted. Digestive, gastro and bowel disorders should be ruled out after seeking doctor's medical advice. These indications might make you think it's due to twisted bowel, so a through checkup of the colon should be scheduled.

The constant pain under the left rib cage can be very uncomfortable for pregnant women specially those in advanced stages. These women experience extreme pain in the area where the breast meets the ribcage. The pain results in extreme trauma and makes sleeping difficult.

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