Is anyone familiar with Costochondritis?

1. 67

   Moon Willow Lakeposted 13 years ago

   Is anyone familiar with Costochondritis?
   
   I was diagnosed with it by a GI doctor years ago and my primary care physician agrees with that diagnosis. However, most of my research has showed that it apparently normally clears up on its own yet mine has had no change for years. I never had the pain prior to my gall-bladder surgery 4 years ago and only earlier this year found out via x-ray that I have a staple there that was put there on purpose (yet was never told about it). Couldn't it actually be the staple causing the pain?

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2. 74

   cathylynn99posted 13 years ago

   costochondritis is kind of like arthritis where a rib meets the breastbone.
   
   why there would be a staple there from GB surgery, i don't know. if your pain started immediately following the operation, i would suspect the staple.

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3. 65

   Amanda Lacasseposted 13 years ago

   Several years ago I had this condition after two nasty bouts of flu. The pain in my chest was severe, so I called the university's Triage Nurse help line and was told it was most probably costochondritis. Apparently, the excessive coughing associated with my illness had inflamed the cartilage attaching the ribs to the breastbone, hence the pain. As the nurse predicted, it abated after about one week; I just took aspirin for it. In your case, it does seem that the staple could be causing constant irritation.  BTW, triage nurses rock!

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4. 61

   My Nurse Saysposted 12 years ago

   I will agree with the prior answers... yes costochondritis is basically the inflammation of the cartilaginous joint between the rib and the sternum (that's the flat bone you feel in the middle of your chest). It is often for heart related chest pains., But costochondritis is nothing to be worried about and some anti-inflammatory pain medications are often prescribed (especially if cardiopulmonary problems have been ruled out). Now about those "staples" your talking about. It is my assumption that your gall-bladder surgery must have been the laparoscopic kind... wherein surgeons incised 3 very small incisions as entry point for the laparoscope and use this to get rid of your diseased gall bladder. To close off the vessels connected to your gall bladder, they use clips (or what you presume as "staples") called Liga-Clips. Now I have encountered patients who had post-OR complications wherein the Liga-Clips got displaced. Usually, these patients have encountered severe pain and sometimes end up febrile. The skin color can often change to a yellow tinge (also called jaundice) because the bile that usually passes through that ligated/clipped vessel is now spilling off. To consider that, an x-ray or ultrasound can rule that out. You can talk to your surgeon who performed the procedure and ask him the possibility of relating your pain with the Liga-Clip just so you can be clarified about it. I hope I gave you enough credible answers and I hope as well that I was able to help you in some way.

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