Lung pain

Pain in the lungs is a relative concept, since the lungs cannot hurt. The appearance of pain in the chest, against the background of an existing cough, difficulty breathing and elevated body temperature, should be directly associated with inflammation of not only the respiratory tract, but also the lung tissue itself. However, pain in the lungs never occurs if the pleura, bronchi or trachea are not involved in the inflammation process. The fact is that there are no pain receptors in the lung tissue itself, so diseases such as pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer in the early stages are painless.

It follows from this that the expression "lung pain" is not quite correct. It would be more correct to use the phrase "lung pain" to describe the pain symptom. But the problem itself does not change depending on how the complaint about the pain symptom is formed. Respiratory system damage is always accompanied by a whole galaxy of symptomatic complexes, which are accompanied not only by pain, but also by a feeling of fear, difficulty breathing, high temperature, severe coughing and expectoration, especially if the expectoration is large.

When differentiating chest pain, it is necessary to take into account its intensity, localization, irradiation, connection with cough, shortness of breath, physical exertion. It is also necessary to note the effectiveness of painkillers. Only an experienced doctor can understand such complex issues, so if you have pain in the lungs, do not self-medicate.

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What causes lung pain?

As already mentioned above, some lung diseases proceed completely painlessly, against the background of a slight increase in body temperature, especially in the early stages of the onset of the inflammatory process. For example, pneumonia behaves in such an insidious way. Until the inflammation spreads to the pleura, there will be no pain, and the involvement of the pleura does not always occur with pneumonia.

But most importantly, pain in the lungs can hide completely unexpected diagnoses related to the large intestine and heart, the duodenum and spine, the pancreas, joints, muscles, nerves and blood vessels.

First of all, it is worth knowing the main diseases and causes that cause pain in the lungs, in order to be able to roughly navigate the situation when encountering chest pain. For simplicity and clarity, we will divide all the causes into several blocks, in relation to the main suffering organ or organ system:

• diseases of the respiratory organs themselves - pleurisy, lobar pneumonia, pneumothorax, bronchitis, tracheitis;
• diseases of the skeletal system, in particular the ribs - costal osteomyelitis, rib contusions and fractures, tuberculosis of the costal bones, oncological lesions of the ribs, including metastases to the sternum, as well as osteomalacia of the bones and many other lesions;
• cardiovascular diseases;
• joint diseases - arthritis, especially of infectious origin, arising against the background of syphilis, tuberculosis, actinomycosis. Arthrosis, joint tumors, Bechterew's disease;
• muscle diseases – myositis of various genesis. Predecessors of myositis of the pectoral muscles can be pathogens of infectious origin – the influenza virus, typhoid fever, the causative agent of gonorrhea. Foci of chronic infections – syphilis or tuberculosis. Metabolic disorders – the presence of diabetes mellitus or gout. In addition, pain in the lungs can be caused by muscle injuries and neuralgia;
• flatulence. The physiological location of the large intestine, with excessive accumulation of gases inside it, implies the likelihood of chest pain.

Angina pectoris

The pain occurs quickly, behind the breastbone, and can spread to the left half of the chest, left shoulder, and stomach area. It is accompanied by a feeling of fear, weakness, shortness of breath, pallor, and sweating. The cause of this pain is a spasm of the coronary vessels, so simple painkillers are ineffective. Validol, nitroglycerin, and Sustak-Forte will help with angina. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that if the attack lasts more than an hour, you should be wary of myocardial infarction.

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Tracheitis

The pain in the lungs is scratchy, localized in the upper part of the sternum, accompanied by a dry, "barking" cough. The pain and cough increase with deep breathing, physical exertion, and cold air entering the trachea. Warm drinks, wrapping, gargling, and antibacterial drugs intended for absorption in the mouth bring relief. If your body temperature rises, your doctor will prescribe general antibiotics.

Bronchitis

The pain in the lungs is diffuse, and its exact location cannot be determined. The pain intensifies with each breath, and with a deep breath, a paroxysmal cough appears, initially dry, and after a few days - wet. The sputum released during coughing can be either mucous or purulent. Breathing becomes shallow, weakness, shortness of breath, and rapid pulse appear. Also noted is an increase in temperature, headache, loss of appetite.

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Lobar pneumonia

An acute infectious disease affecting one or more lobes of the lung. The pain in the lungs is stabbing, accompanied by a dry, painful cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath, headache and joint pain, pallor, cyanosis of the fingertips. Subsequently, the cough becomes wet, with the release of viscous sputum of a rusty color. Croupous pneumonia is often complicated by pulmonary edema, and treatment should be carried out under the supervision of a doctor.

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Pleurisy

The pleura is a fibrous membrane consisting of two sheets. One sheet of the pleura is fused with the surface of the lungs, and the second with the ribs, and lines the chest cavity from the inside. Thanks to the pleura, friction of the lungs on the ribs during breathing is reduced. Pleurisy - inflammation of the pleural sheets - can be unilateral or bilateral, dry or exudative. It occurs against the background of tuberculosis, pneumonia, abscess or pulmonary infarction, lung tumors, rheumatism, echinococcosis, uremia.

The pain in the lungs with dry pleurisy is stabbing, one- or two-sided, often localized in the lower and lateral parts of the chest, intensifies with deep breathing, coughing, and sudden movements. The patient's body position is forced - on the affected side, since this reduces the excursion of the chest. If dry pleurisy turns into exudative, then serous, serous-purulent or purulent effusion accumulates between the pleural sheets. The pain gradually decreases and passes, but the movement of the chest on the affected side also decreases. The pressure of the exudate on the lung does not allow it to unfold when inhaling. Dyspnea, tachycardia, cyanosis (blueness), general weakness occur. Treatment of pleurisy is complex, complicated, and is carried out in a hospital.

Pneumothorax

Pneumothorax is the entry of air into the pleural cavity. Between the pleural layers there is a sealed cavity, the atmospheric pressure in which is negative. A breach in the seal of this cavity leads to the entry of atmospheric air, equalization of pressure and collapse of the lung on the damaged side. Pneumothorax can be caused by chest injuries, cancer, abscess, pulmonary tuberculosis. In this case, the pain in the lungs is sharp, prolonged, appears suddenly, intensifies with breathing, talking, movement. The pain is accompanied by severe pallor, frequent shallow breathing, frequent weak pulse, decreased blood pressure, dry cough. The chest on the damaged side is expanded, lags in movement from the undamaged one.

Lung cancer

Lung pain occurs in the later stages of the disease, when the tumor affects sensitive elements of the chest cavity: large bronchi, pleura, ribs. The pain has different localizations and can be sharp, aching, stabbing, intensify with breathing and coughing, occupy a certain place or spread to the entire chest, radiate to the shoulder, neck, epigastric region. The pain is persistent and subsides for a short time under the influence of strong painkillers. The general condition of patients is severe. Cough, shortness of breath, fever, general exhaustion, in some cases - hemoptysis, pulmonary edema appear.

Pain of bone origin

The thoracic cage consists of 12 vertebrae, 12 pairs of ribs and the sternum. The periosteum covering them contains a large number of sensitive nerve endings, and its damage leads to the occurrence of severe, persistent pain at the site of localization of the pathological process, often accompanied by an increase in temperature. The cause of pain can be:

• chest bone injury (bruise, crack, fracture)
• inflammatory process (osteomyelitis, tuberculosis, actinomycosis, syphilis)
• tumor lesions of bones (benign, malignant, primary, secondary)
• degenerative processes in bones (osteoporosis, osteomalacia).

Pain of joint origin

The bones of the chest are connected to each other by many joints, which provide flexibility of the spine. Joint pain can be caused by arthritis, arthrosis, joint tumors. In this case, swelling, redness, pain in the joint when moving or pressing are observed. The temperature at the site of inflammation may increase. Treatment depends on the causes of the disease and varies significantly.

Pain of muscular origin

The cause of muscle pain is myositis – inflammation of muscles of various origins. These can be infections (flu, tuberculosis, typhoid fever), metabolic diseases (diabetes, gout), overwork or muscle injuries. The affected muscle is thickened, painful to palpation, hot to the touch. The pain increases with movement, changes in body position, deep breathing. There is no cough or shortness of breath with myositis. Treatment consists of the use of anti-inflammatory and warming ointments, balms, compresses.

Pain of intestinal origin

The chest cavity is separated from the abdominal cavity by a muscular dome, the diaphragm, which penetrates deeply under the edge of the costal arch. Accumulation of gases in the large intestine, in the so-called splenic flexure, can provoke severe paroxysmal pain to the left of the sternum or in the entire epigastric region. After the gases are removed from the intestine, the pain stops.

Pain in the lungs: types and characteristic signs

It is necessary to distinguish several types of pain that can occur in the chest area. In one case, the nature of the pain and its intensity will indicate damage to the respiratory organs; in another case, all the signs will indicate the onset of a heart attack.

So. Acute pain in the chest, accompanied by a strong cough, shortness of breath and elevated body temperature - is evidence of pleural damage. Another proof in favor of this conclusion will be an increase in shortness of breath at the moment of inhalation, when the pleura begins to stretch under the influence of an increase in lung volume.

Tracheitis is characterized by pain in the lungs with a clear localization behind the breastbone. Inflammatory processes in the trachea are necessarily accompanied by a strong, hacking cough, in which the pain intensifies many times over.

Particular caution should be exercised by chest pains that are difficult to relieve, accompanied by shortness of breath and dependence on body position, increasing at the moment of movement. Such pains occur with neuralgia of the intercostal muscles, damage to the spine in the thoracic region, as well as with the same pleurisy and radiculitis.

Chest pains called radiating pains should be taken with caution. Remember, pain in the left half of the chest, radiating to the left arm, with numbness of the fingers of the limb, definitely indicates damage to the coronary part of the heart. When chest pain appears, a detailed differential diagnosis should always be carried out with all heart diseases.

For the average person, any chest pain is, first of all, pain in the lungs, and will remain so until a full diagnosis is made. In view of this, consider the main diagnostic methods.

Lung pain and its diagnosis

First, you need to determine which specialist you need to contact first. This may be, depending on the situation:

• therapist;
• traumatologist;
• cardiologist;
• pulmonologist;
• oncologist.

If chest pains appear for the first time, have a sudden and paroxysmal onset, then you should contact emergency care specialists as soon as possible. By contacting an ambulance operator, you can receive initial recommendations and the necessary range of therapeutic services.

A chest X-ray, in some cases in three projections – front and sides, allows to identify most lung diseases, including bronchitis and exudative pleurisy.

Computer tomography, like magnetic resonance, helps specialists diagnose cardiac, vascular, bone, joint and complex diseases. In difficult situations, diagnosticians resort to the biopsy method, when a piece of affected tissue from the site of inflammation is taken for examination.

The informativeness of instrumental diagnostic methods is supplemented by indicators of general and clinical blood and urine tests. An increase in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, a high content of leukocytes in the blood is always evidence of the development of inflammation in the body.

How to treat lung pain?

If we are talking specifically about pain in the respiratory organs, be it the pleura, bronchi or trachea, then treatment measures will include a complex consisting of anti-inflammatory drugs, mainly antibacterial in nature, for example, the latest generation of antibiotics, including such drugs as ciprolet, ceftriaxone, cefazolin and others.

Expectorants and antitussives, at different stages of treatment. And in this order, first expectorants and only after the sputum has begun to come off well, without delays, you can move on to using antitussives.

It is not worth excluding the possibility of prescribing antihistamines and drugs that enhance the drainage function of the respiratory organs, such as euphyllin. Immunostimulants and vitamins are also included in the mandatory treatment regimen.

Each case of the disease requires its own specific treatment approach. Some will need intramuscular administration of drugs, while for others, the best option will be intravenous drip administration for rapid removal of intoxication. But for all patients without exception who have pain in the lungs, there are strict rules - strict bed rest or gentle regimen (again, depending on the situation), proper nutrition, consisting of high-calorie and vitamin-rich food, complete cessation of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Along with drug therapy, a range of physiotherapy procedures and rehabilitation measures are carried out after the acute inflammatory stage has been stopped.

Pleurisy, especially exudative, croupous pneumonia, as well as any pneumonia, tuberculosis, pulmonary infarction, pneumothorax - all these diseases require a long treatment period and an even longer recovery period. Some diseases result in complete recovery, others force you to put up with the presence of a chronic focus, which requires careful monitoring with periodic courses of medical examination.

In all other cases, when chest pain occurs due to the development of a pathological process in organs not associated with the respiratory system, the range of treatment measures will depend on the affected organ, the degree of complexity of the developing disease and associated complications.

What to do if you have pain in your lungs?

So, pain in the lungs can accompany many different diseases. In most cases, an X-ray of the lungs and laboratory diagnostics are necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, so do not self-medicate, and be healthy!

Prevention of pulmonary diseases

Following simple rules for maintaining your own health, which include proper nutrition, giving up bad habits, timely treatment of colds, eliminating foci of chronic infection in the form of carious teeth and tonsillitis - by and large allows you to protect the respiratory organs from the development of inflammatory processes in them. Hypothermia also plays a major role. As medical statistics show, six out of ten patients suffering from pneumonia noted prolonged hypothermia before the first symptoms of the disease appeared.

The disease appears when a person has done something wrong, has made some mistake in relation to his body. During treatment there will be time to analyze the situation and try to observe all precautions in the future, then the pain in the lungs and many other diseases will recede and perhaps even leave your life.