Intercostal neuralgia is a pathological process that develops if compression or irritation of the nerve occurs. Pain can be painful, strong, with high intensity. Most often they are localized in the spine or sternum.
The disease is often perceived as a sign of other diseases, so it is important to understand what are the main symptoms of intercostal neuralgia on the right and left. It is necessary to carefully listen to the signals that the body gives and clearly explain your condition to the doctor.
Symptomatology
Of particular concern to patients is intercostal neuralgia on the right. It manifests itself as severe pain, intensifying many times during exhalation or inhalation, coughing, sneezing. In addition, the pain syndrome developing on the right side increases with palpation of the intercostal spaces and spine, especially if the doctor manages to find the places of damage to the nervous tissue.
If you pay attention to pain as the main symptom of the disease, then it can have a different location. Very often it is felt in the spaces between the ribs, in the lumbar region, in the area of the shoulder blades. The patient may experience severe attacks that last a long time. The main symptoms of intercostal neuralgia on the right are as follows:
- Acute pain that lasts constantly.
- Tingling and burning sensation.
- Periodic pains similar to cardiac, excruciating and acute.
- Severe pain when cornering, sneezing, coughing. This symptom is most often distinguished by intercostal neuralgia.
- Symptoms on the right manifest as loss of sensation on this side of the chest.
If the pain is localized on the other hand, there is an additional danger. It is very important when intercostal neuralgia develops on the left, to distinguish it from heart pain. The presented signs will help to understand this:
- Discomfort in the heart usually lasts a short period of time.
- The pain stops after taking nitroglycerin.
- Heart pain radiates to the shoulder, arm.
- The nature of the pain does not change with deep breathing.
- There are rhythm disturbances.
If a person suffers from neuralgia, the pain syndrome is always prolonged and often does not subside at night, intensifies with palpation, turns and inclinations. To eliminate it, drugs with anesthetic effect and the application of heat help.
With the development of the disease, other symptoms of intercostal neuralgia on the right begin to manifest themselves, which can be classified as follows:
- Increased sweating.
- Redness or pallor of the skin in the area of inflammation.
- Involuntary muscle contraction at the site of neuralgia.
The causes of the disease
Often, the causes that contributed to the development of intercostal neuralgia are inflammatory, degenerative, tumor changes affecting the nervous system. Most often, peripheral nerve trunks are affected. The main reasons can be identified as follows:
- Injuries, diseases of the ribs and spinal column.
- Diseases of the intestines and stomach.
- Diabetes.
- Lack of minerals and vitamins.
- Tumors of the thoracic spine.
- High tension or inflammation of the spinal muscles.
- Progressive osteochondrosis.
- Overwork, stress.
- Thoracic nerve injury.
- Intoxication with microbial toxins, medicines, neurotropic poisons.
- Herpetic damage to nerve tissue.
- Weak immunity.
- Vascular and heart diseases.
- Injuries to the spine and malformations.
- Hormonal changes and menopause in women.
- Alcoholism.
Prerequisites for the formation of the disease
If one or several reasons affect the body, an injury, an inflammatory process, or blocking of the nerve root or its trunk forms over time. Such conditions lead to the fact that the nerve experiences oxygen deficiency (hypoxia), receives an excessive number of impulses. These factors are transformed, resulting in pain during intercostal neuralgia.
Features of the female body
A woman is exposed to another additional risk factor - wearing tight underwear. The bras with a narrow base and hard bones squeeze the chest and mechanically block the nerves, causing damage to them. Most often, intercostal neuralgia in women develops against the background of thinness, because they have little subcutaneous fat and nerves are located close to the skin.
Chickenpox virus and neuralgia
The symptoms of intercostal neuralgia listed above on the right can be supplemented by a rather rare manifestation. These are rashes in the back and sternum. It is possible that the development of the disease will occur due to the chickenpox virus. This is zoster or herpes zoster. With the appointment of adequate therapy, all the vesicles and crusts pass, but the pain syndrome can remain with the person for months. This type of neuralgia is called postherpetic.
Diagnostics
Primary diagnosis comes down to compiling a patient history. The doctor relies on the visitor’s complaints and carefully examines him, probing the affected area. Most often, the diagnosis is made after these manipulations, but in more complex cases, an instrumental examination is performed:
- If there is a suspicion of a nerve injury, an electroneurography is performed.
- Thoracic intercostal neuralgia is detected by MRI, CT of the spinal column. This also eliminates the presence of hernias and tumors of the spine itself and adjacent soft tissues.
- X-ray of the chest and spine.
- General tests of urine and blood, especially with the spread of pain from the chest to the lumbar.
- To exclude infectious nerve damage, an analysis is carried out for the presence of antibodies to herpes viruses.
Only after a full diagnosis is appropriate therapy prescribed, aimed at eliminating a disease such as intercostal neuralgia. Treatment (tablets, physiotherapy) is carried out under the strict supervision of a physician.
Treatment
The specialist who treats intercostal neuralgia is a neurologist. In exceptional cases, the intervention of a neurosurgeon is required. The principle of therapy is based on the elimination of the causes of the disease, which led to pinching and inflammation of the nerve.
During the period when the patient experiences acute pain, the following measures are indicated:
- Bed rest for several days. The bed should be firm and even, a shield is placed under the mattress.
- Warming the right side of the chest with dry heat. This can be a heated towel, a compress, a woolen scarf.
- Mustard must be applied to the near-vertebral zone.
- Massage effect with warming and anti-inflammatory ointments.
- Taking drugs with a sedative effect, non-steroidal analgesics.
- It is necessary to exclude alcohol, physical exertion, stress, otherwise inevitably the intensification of pain inherent in such a disease as intercostal neuralgia.
Home treatment should be accompanied by all the recommendations listed above.
Features of drug treatment
With unbearable pain, novocaine blockade can be used. In addition, when the disease takes a chronic form, doctors prescribe pain erasing drugs, which include some antiepileptic drugs and antidepressants. A significant part of drug therapy is analgesics. Medicines help eliminate pain and should be taken no more than 4 times a day (Pentalgin, Sedalgin).
It is important to eliminate tissue swelling, if it accompanies the disease and enhances the negative state. For this, venotonics and diuretics are often used ("Lasix", "Hypothiazide").
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the form of injections or suppositories, ointments are prescribed comprehensively, in combination with muscle relaxants, which relieve spasms and eliminate pathological processes ("Atracuria", "Tubokurarin", "Diclofenac").
Drugs to improve blood circulation warm the muscles. Very effective Apizatron.
Sedatives for neuralgia (Gelarium, Deprim) will relieve stress after pain attacks and provide a calm sleep.
Rehabilitation
The tactics of subsequent treatment consists of the following activities:
- Ural right chest segment, electrophoresis.
- Acupuncture.
- Laser Therapy
- Osteopathy.
- The intake of B-group vitamins in high doses. Vitamins restore the nerve membrane, making it more stable.
As part of the rehabilitation period, the patient is prescribed ozokerite and paraffin applications on the right side of the chest, massages, mud therapy, baths with hydrogen sulfide and radon, swimming, physiotherapy exercises.
Surgical treatment is carried out in case of detection of volume formations, when they squeeze the nerve roots and give pain. Traditional therapy is the main, but not the only way to eliminate a disease such as intercostal neuralgia. Treatment with folk remedies can also have a beneficial effect. However, it is recommended to consult a doctor.
Folk remedies
Very often, folk recipes are used as additional measures to combat such an unpleasant disease. The presented recipes help to cope with the main lesions of the nervous system, including when the patient has intercostal neuralgia. Treatment (tablets, medical procedures) should be complete. You can not use folk remedies as the basis of therapy.
The most effective recipes
- To eliminate the disease, it is recommended to use willow bark. About 15 grams of crushed plant material is brewed with 250 ml of boiling water. The mixture is boiled for about 20 minutes at low heat. Then the broth should cool, it is filtered and drunk in 20 ml four times daily.
- Several petals of simple room geranium are laid out on a piece of linen. Compress leaves applied to the affected side, bandaged and insulated. The pain should subside after two hours. The intensity of the procedures is 2-3 times a day.
- Garlic oil helps eliminate neuralgia. No more than 25 ml of oil is diluted in 500 ml of brandy or alcohol. The resulting essence should lubricate the forehead and temples, which helps eliminate seizures. A homeopathic effect is realized.
- Alternative treatment of intercostal neuralgia contains such a recipe: a simple egg is boiled hard-boiled. In hot form, it is applied to the sore spot until it cools completely. When the egg becomes cold, the pain should pass.
- Horseradish can be equally effective. The crushed leaves of the plant are laid out on the right side of the chest and covered with a warm wool scarf.
- Juice is squeezed out of one black radish fruit. In the form of heat, it is rubbed along the nerve in the treatment of intercostal neuralgia.
- It is also recommended to prepare thyme tincture. The plant well relieves pain, which is always accompanied by intercostal neuralgia. Treatment with folk remedies involves the use of the following recipe: ten grams of the plant component is poured with 100 ml of alcohol. The mixture is infused 24 hours, filtered and taken three times a day for 15 drops.
Prevention
For the prevention of relapse, methods of strengthening the muscles of the back are shown. The patient should avoid hypothermia. A healthy lifestyle and vitamins are needed. The forecast is almost always favorable.
Conclusion
According to neurologists, one of the most insidious pathologies is intercostal neuralgia. Symptoms arising to the right or left of the spine make patients assume that they are ill with completely different ailments. The primary medical recommendations are that a person, feeling pain, should not drown it out with analgesics, but must consult an appropriate specialist for the benefit of his own health.
If you do not take measures, it is possible to develop complications such as chronic pain in the sternum, oxygen starvation of nerve tissue, limiting the amplitude of movement of the trunk and shoulder joints. In the most severe cases, respiratory arrest occurs.