Thoracalgia - what is it? Causes and treatment of thoracology

Severe pain in the chest today is one of the most common reasons for people to seek medical help. They can be associated with cardiovascular pathology or with spinal problems. Thoracalgia - what is it? What is its cause and how to protect yourself from these pains, we learn in more detail.

Types of chest pain

Thoracalgia syndrome, manifested by severe, sometimes intolerable pain in the chest, is closely related to peripheral nerve damage. The reason for this may be the compression of their muscles and ligaments surrounding them. It should be noted that this can occur not only in the body of a mature person, but also in adolescents during the period of active growth, as well as in pregnant women, when the load on the spine increases due to the growth of the fetus. As a rule, according to the type of disease,

• is vertebrogenic, that is, associated with the pathology of the spine;
• non-malformed thoracalgia - in this case, chest pain can be associated with various diseases of the internal organs: the heart( most often coronary pathologies), the gastrointestinal tract( gastroduodenal reflux), respiratory system diseases, musculoskeletal disorders;
  instagram stories viewer
• psychogenic thoracalgia - most often it is organ neuroses and panic attacks.

Causes of chest pain

Pain in the chest area can be the result of a variety of causes. The peculiarity of such a syndrome as thoracalgia is that this disease can result from completely different pathological processes. Most often its causes are:

• osteochondrosis;
• hernia and protrusion of intervertebral discs of the thoracic spine;
• muscle spasm;
• spine trauma;
• weight lifting, physical overload;
• infectious and non-infectious diseases of the nervous system;
• allergies, viral diseases;
• osteoporosis;
• stress, decreased immunity.

Symptoms of thoracology

Symptomatic of this disease is not very diverse. As a rule, it reduces to the following symptoms:

• persistent or paroxysmal pain in the chest, burning sensations in the intercostal spaces;
• pain may be concentrated in one half of the body or be shrouded in nature;
• painful areas are well palpated( muscular-tonic thoracology), they are usually located along the affected nerve, in addition, there is often a numbness of the skin in the area of ​​its innervation;
• pain enhancement in case of abrupt movements, coughing, sneezing, deep breaths;
• vertebrae crunch when moving;
• the patient's condition worsens after exposure to cold or long stay in a static position.

Because thoracology on the left with its symptoms is very similar to the pains characteristic of heart pathology, careful diagnosis is necessary, because an erroneous diagnosis will come to ineffective treatment.

Differences in pain in coronary heart disease( ischemic heart disease) and vertebrogenic thoracology

Symptoms	IHD	Thoracalgia vertebrogenic
Pain character	Pain behind breastbone constricting, burning, often accompanied by fear of death	Pain of aching, pricking, compressive, burning nature
Pain duration	Short, duration of attack limited to minutes	May be as short-lived, fading infor several minutes, and prolonged, unrelenting throughout the day
Effect on the pain of position changes	Not affected	Movement, especially sharpe, provoke or aggravate an attack
Reaction to physical exertion	Pain becomes a reaction to physical exertion, often passes	After the termination of exercise, the pain weakens or completely discontinued
Response to taking analgesics and nitrates	Nitrates easily relieve pain	Decreased after takinganalgesics, nitrate intake has no effect
Reaction to physiotherapy and manual therapy	There is a small, unstable ulu	shenie showed significant improvement after only a few sessions

clinical picture

Today doctors are four clinical variants of such pathological phenomena as torakalgiya. That this disease is directly related to the functional condition of the spine, explains this classification:

1. Thoracalgia, the cause of which were violations in the lower spine. It is characterized by pain in the upper chest( over- and subclavian area), radiating to the neck, shoulder, arm. On examination, tenderness is noted in the joints on the affected side, zones of soreness and increased tone of the trapezius and intercostal muscles.
2. Thoracalgia vertebrogenic, associated with pathological processes in the superior thoracic spine. In this case, there are constant diffuse pains of the aching, pulling character, often having a retrosternal or interlopacial localization. Usually, pain is not associated with movement or physical activity.
3. Scapula-rib version of thoracology. This syndrome is characterized by a variety of pains that are localized most often to the left in the interscapular, near-sucked region or along the lateral line of the thorax, below the armpit. The pain can be long-lasting or paroxysmal. Often it is associated with an act of breathing. Another characteristic feature is the migration of pain along the ribs under pressure.
4. The syndrome of the anterior thoracic wall, characterized by blunt, aching, prolonged pains, often aggravated by movement and localized in the near-chest and antero-axillary regions.

Diagnosis

Chest pain can be caused by many causes, and therefore the diagnosis of "thoracology" is made only after the cardiac and pulmonary pathologies have been excluded, that is, after consulting a cardiologist and a pulmonologist. If there are no abnormalities from these specialists, then, in addition to laboratory tests, a detailed examination is carried out, ideally including:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging;
• radiography;
• densitometry( examination of the structure of bone tissue);
• scintigraphy( study with radioisotopes);
• electroneuromyography( examination to assess the functioning of the peripheral nervous system).

And already on the basis of these examinations, a diagnosis like thoracalgia is made. Symptoms and treatment of the disease will also have their own characteristics in each case. This stage is also important because an incorrectly diagnosed diagnosis often leads to a long, often expensive and completely useless treatment.

Thoracalgia: treatment of

Treatment of this pathology can not be in any one action. To achieve the optimal result, a whole complex of therapeutic measures is needed, which includes physiotherapy, massage, manual therapy, medication, and physiotherapy. If necessary, this list includes spinal traction( traction) and reflexology.

Drug therapy in this case is used in the acute period of the disease. Its purpose is to relieve acute pain and inflammation. For this, preparations of the following pharmacological groups are used:

• anti-inflammatory drugs - Diclofenac, Meloksikam, Aertal;
• muscle relaxants - "Midokalm", "Sirdalud";
• neuroprotectors - B vitamins, "Mexidol";
• chondroprotectors - "Chondrohard", "Hondrolon".

However, it should be remembered that only drug treatment can not radically solve the problem. In order to restore the functions of the spine and ensure the decompression of nerve endings, it is necessary immediately after the pain relief to do massage and exercise therapy.

Physiotherapy

With a disease such as thoracalgia, the symptoms and treatment of which often depend on many factors, physiotherapy is a real magical tool. This method is based on the use of physical phenomena, such as ultrasound, magnetic fields, laser, low frequency currents. Along with medicamental treatment, they allow you to quickly and effectively remove pain symptoms and neutralize inflammation. Another advantage of these procedures is, with rare exceptions, the absence of contraindications.

Manual therapy

Today, manual therapy has become very popular in the treatment of diseases of the spine. It is a whole complex of therapeutic techniques that allows you to correct violations in the work of the spine, joints, muscles and ligament apparatus with the help of the hands. Outwardly, these actions resemble massage, but the difference consists in limiting the localization of sites and the force of impact.

In the case of vertebrogenic thoracalgia, the influence of the chiropractor is aimed at improving the volume of movement in the intervertebral joints and increasing the elasticity of muscles and ligaments. Together, this reduces the compression on the affected nerve, and as a result, the condition improves. It should be noted that very often professional manual manipulation allows solving problems that could not be treated by other methods.

Chronic form

As a rule, if the treatment is not started in time or if it is not carried out in its entirety, the process is chronographed. It is necessary to remember, if a disease such as thoracalgia is established, that this can threaten the appearance of an intervertebral hernia and subsequently lead to disability.

Yes, the chronic form is characterized by a weaker pain syndrome, and it is often "tolerated".However, even if the pain does not bother for a long time, then, returning, it will become even more intense, which means that its cause is not defeated, but continues to destroy the body. To avoid this, it is necessary, as soon as the first signs of the disease appeared, not to engage in self-medication and not wait for "it will pass by itself", but seek qualified help. After all, the sooner the measures are taken, the more chances to completely get rid of the disease.