When most people experience back pain between the shoulder blades, they link its occurrence to various diseases of the spine, nerve roots, ligaments, discs, or the discs themselves. But it should be remembered that this pain sensation may also be associated with other diseases of the chest organs - the stomach, heart, respiratory system and mediastinal organs.
This pain can be acute, it grows rapidly and disappears or increases significantly over time, or it can be chronic, which is a long-term concern for the patient and requires an accurate diagnosis as it may be the result of any serious pathology in the chestorgan of symptoms. Sometimes pain between the shoulder blades only occurs after a sudden physical exertion or prolonged exposure to an uncomfortable position.
It should be remembered that pain in the interscapular region is not a disease but a symptom and the real cause of their appearance should be determined before any ointment or injections are used for back pain. When contacting a doctor, it is important to describe all the mildest accompanying symptoms of pain, when it occurs, predisposing factors that exacerbate the pain, because the doctor needs help orienting the examination, and it is sometimes very difficult to establish the correctdiagnosis.
Too often, the untimely determination of the real cause of pain between the shoulder blades forces a person to perform numerous expensive and lengthy examinations, using various treatment options that are sometimes inappropriately prescribed and therefore do not bring the desired results. Therefore, it is important for the patient himself to be aware of the list of possible disorders characterized by this pain syndrome.
pain caused by spinal lesions
Rather than detail obvious causes such as bruises, injuries, dislocations, and fractured vertebrae, we will consider other possible causes of this back pain.
intervertebral hernia
You should be aware that a thoracic hernia is a very rare condition, as this spine does not take more load than the cervical and lumbar spine. To diagnose or rule out this pathology, neurologists, osteopaths instruct patients on MRI, CT. The change in intervertebral hernias is due to the annulus fibrosus - the outer part from the torn disc that begins to bulge while the distance between the vertebrae decreases and the nerve roots are pinched. That is, the annulus fibrosus ruptures and the nucleus pulposus (the shock absorber in the center of the disc) begins to protrude into it.
When this type of hernia is discovered, doctors prescribe NSAIDs (anti-inflammatory drugs), physical therapy, physiotherapy, reflexology, and in severe cases, surgery. This pain in thoracic hernias differs from other conditions in that it is confined to one place and the pain can also radiate to the chest, which may resemble symptoms of impaired lung or heart function. If intervertebral hernia is not treated for a long time, spinal curvature, paraparesis, pelvic organ dysfunction, chronic pain syndrome, etc. may occur.
Overexertion combined with hypothermia in the back muscles
Overworked back muscles can also cause shoulder blade pain, which is not considered a disease, but with frequent overloading, heavy lifting, sitting in monotonous positions for long periods of time, osteochondrosis, scoliosis, intervertebral hernias occurRisk will increase. A lot of times, people whose jobs force them to be in the same position for hours a day suffer like this—these are tailors, drivers, office workers, surgeons.
Sometimes, when such occupations are combined with air conditioning, hypothermia develops so-called back pain, when the pain becomes more severe and NSAIDs (NSAIDs) are required, warming is used, distraction creams, massage, etc.
To prevent such complications, you should try to avoid airflow and live the most active lifestyle possible, doing yoga, Bodyflex, therapeutic exercises, and professional massage every six months.
Spinal tuberculosis
Today, many doctors seem to "forget" about the disease, anti-tuberculosis services in the country have declined for some reason, and in fact almost 90% of the population has been infected with M. tuberculosis since childhood. If a person has an injury, especially the back or joints, or just gets very cold, and the immune system is very weak, TB foci will often appear at the site of the injury, not even on X-rays of specific signs alwayscan be identified in time.
Often in this case, the diagnosis can only be established when the patient is already exhausted from terrible pain and has many complications. With this disorder, a person may experience very intense burning pain between the shoulder blades, which the patient describes as twisting or drilling at one point in the spine, and when the focus is on the thoracic spine, the pain radiates to the chest, withBurning, fever, pain.
Spinal tuberculosis is a very insidious disease, when it occurs in the spine, patients do not always have lesions in the lungs, it can be an independent focus of tuberculosis infection anywhere in the spine. People are used to thinking that tuberculosis is a disease that affects only low social classes and is usually confined to the lungs. This is a huge misunderstanding!
When the body's defenses are weakened, the Koch bacteria in almost everyone is activated in the weakest organ and begins a slow inflammatory process, it may be like the kidneys, lymph nodes, fallopian tubes in women, prostate gland or testes in men, A single vertebra in the spine or the joints of the limbs.
Scoliosis
According to statistics, nearly 50% of the population has varying degrees of scoliosis development—the curvature of the spine, twisting, and the most common combination of thoracic and cervical or lumbar spine. And because the ribs are connected to the rib cage, the shape of the rib cage also changes. It develops for many reasons - these are congenital lesions of the ligaments, bones, and acquired lesions - severe physical overload, sedentary office work or school children sitting at desks.
With lateral and direct chest X-rays, a surgeon, neurologist, orthopaedic surgeon or osteopath can make a similar diagnosis. The treatment of this pathology should be very intensive and long-term - it is a massage, wearing a special corset, a therapeutic exercise. In scoliosis, back pain between the shoulder blades is the main symptom, and the following symptoms are also inherent:
- Visual curvature may be subtle in the early stages, but becomes apparent as scoliosis progresses when examining the patient from behind.
- Scoliosis increases back muscle fatigue
- Shoulder and arm positions may be at different heights
- Pain in the chest that makes the patient uncomfortable is more often on one side
- Between the shoulder blades, pain can be periodic, caused by severe overexertion or prolonged standing or sitting, or it can be constant.
osteochondrosis
Since the primary stages of osteochondrosis are found today even in 10-year-old children, this pathology can rightly be called the scourge of modern city dwellers. Recently, the disease was considered to be a disease of the elderly, but modern life, an incorrectly sedentary lifestyle, leads to the early development of dystrophic changes in the joints and spine. The cause of back pain is due to the inflammatory process that occurs in the tissue surrounding the damaged vertebrae and the compression of the nerve roots. The following symptoms are characteristic of osteochondrosis:
- Persistent back pain, exacerbated by sneezing, coughing, sharp changes in body position during physical activity
- You can hear a creaking sound between your shoulder blades as you straighten your shoulders
- Chest pain can be described as "the stakes are worth it"
- Reducing the mobility of the ribs can cause breathing difficulties and, so to speak, the person starts breathing in the stomach
- Limited hand movement and feeling of weakness, tingling, or numbness in the hand.
intercostal neuralgia
Intercostal neuralgia usually afflicts people with pain on one side of the chest, but in rare cases, it can also be in the shoulder blade area. This occurs when thoracic nerve root compression occurs during excessive stress, hypothermia, trauma, infectious disease, or thoracic osteochondrosis.
With intercostal neuralgia, the symptoms, pain, are worsened by chest pressure and coughing, and can disturb the patient during the day and night. Because the pain of osteochondrosis, scoliosis, and intercostal neuralgia can be difficult to distinguish, a qualified orthopaedic surgeon, neurologist, osteopath, and surgeon should be contacted for a definitive diagnosis.
Spondyloarthropathy
This disease, very similar to osteochondrosis, changes body posture depending on the nature of the pain, according to factors that increase pain during exercise. It is also chronic, with periods of exacerbation and remission. Spondyloarthropathies can only be differentiated from osteochondrosis with the aid of X-rays, MRI, or CT. In this disease, cartilage is destroyed and replaced by bone tissue, so bony protrusions can be found on the vertebrae.
back muscle myositis
Can occur after any hypothermia, SARS, flu, muscle strain, back injury, inflammation of muscle tissue - myositis. Like any disease, it can be acute or chronic. In this case, pain can occur anywhere on the spine, they are painful in nature and increase with palpation, movement, physical exertion. This is not a dangerous condition, and treating back pain with a warming and pain-relieving ointment can often help.
Visceral disease
As we have already said, back scapula pain is not always a sign of spinal disease, almost all diseases of the mediastinal organs, heart, stomach, pancreas and gallbladder can cause back pain. In our age of tumor stress, whenThe development of tumors in mediastinal organs, stomach, and lungs may also manifest as shoulder blade pain when cancer is detrimental to both children and adults.
Cardiovascular disease
Ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris are diseases that can also cause this pain. Have angina. For example, the pain does not last more than 5 minutes and is usually relieved immediately with nitroglycerin. However, in an acute attack, if severe pain persists for more than 5 minutes, blood pressure drops, cold sweats, and pale skin, an ambulance should be called immediately.
Gastrointestinal disease
Stomach ulcers, pancreatitis, and cholecystitis are three possible causes of chest pain in the front and back. In addition, the development of gastric and pancreatic tumor diseases can also cause this feeling.
Respiratory diseases
If the patient is concerned about coughing, elevated body temperature, or even mildly elevated body temperature in addition to back pain, the cause may be lung disease. Often, diseases such as pneumonia or pleurisy precede hypothermia, acute respiratory viral infection, and influenza. Recently, there have been more and more cases of the development of atypical pneumonia, when pneumonia is caused by pathogens such as mycoplasma or chlamydia, they are not accompanied by very high temperatures, but occur on a subfebrile background and return to inhalation, pain may occur left and right, especially when taking a deep breath. The main criteria for distinguishing lung lesions from other causes are body temperature (even not high) and cough.
other illnesses
- For example, osteoporosis with vertebral fractures in the context of chronic steroid use or estrogen decline in postmenopausal women.
- For example, metastases to the vertebrae of gastric cancer can also cause pain.
- Spontaneous fracture with unreasonable load.
- Ankylosing spondylitis (Bechterew disease) is a systemic disease. More susceptible than men, in which, against the background of inflammation, the vertebrae are affected and ligamentous ossification occurs. As a result, the spine becomes rigid, radiologically described as bamboo sticks.