Rib pain

Feeling pain in your ribs or chest wall can be alarming. You may immediately worry that you’re having a heart attack. Don’t ignore it. Many different conditions, from the very minor to the quite serious – including a heart attack – can cause rib pain. Our experts are here to help quickly pinpoint the cause and provide the best treatment for you.

And if a broken rib is the cause of your pain, you’re in the right place. We specialize in rib fracture stabilization surgery so you can heal faster with less pain and return to your everyday activities more quickly.

What is rib cage pain?

In general, rib pain makes it hard for you to take a deep breath, twist your body or put pressure on your chest.

A range of conditions can cause sore ribs, including a pulled muscle, bruised or broken rib, or even acid reflux. Broken ribs are quite common and can take six weeks to six months to heal.

Sometimes though, pain in your rib cage can be a sign of something more serious, such as a heart attack or even cancer.

Because it’s difficult to determine what might be causing your rib pain, get emergency medical help. If you think you’re having a heart attack, call 911 immediately.

Rib pain diagnosis

To precisely identify the cause of your rib pain, we’ll ask about your discomfort, listen carefully to your symptoms and give you a thorough physical exam. We may also order radiographic imaging, such as an X-ray or CT scan, to help diagnose the cause.

Find out more about our heart and vascular testing and diagnosis.

Rib pain treatment

We’ll develop a treatment plan that works best for you based on your pain level and the underlying injury or condition that’s causing your non-cardiac rib pain.

We may recommend:

• Home care such as rest, cold compresses, and anti-inflammatory medication for injuries like a pulled muscle or bruised rib, which often heal on their own with time.
• Integrative medicine, such as acupuncture, massage, or other holistic treatments.
• Pain management of ongoing discomfort for longer-term pain relief that may include steroid injections or counseling.
• Physical therapy or rehabilitation, supervised exercise, and therapy to help you heal faster and prevent re-injury.
• Referral to one of our gastroenterologists, a doctor who specializes in the digestive system, if the underlying cause is linked to your esophagus.
• Rib fracture stabilization (rib plating), if you have multiple broken ribs, complicated fractures, or an active lifestyle that makes recovery challenging, to help you recover more quickly and less painfully. In this type of thoracic surgery, we connect titanium plates across your broken ribs to stabilize the fractures.