What is a cervical rib?
Human skeleton has 24 ribs, 12 on each side that is attached to the vertebral at the back. The seven best ribs, called real ribs, are connected to the front to the thoracic bone or pectoral bones; Three more ribs are attached to each other by cartilage; And the bottom two ribs, called floating ribs, are not connected at the front. In rare cases, there is another rib between the lower neck vertebra and the first rib. This next rib is called the uterine rib. The cervical rib generally occurs on the one hand, although sometimes one can have one on each side. This condition, which occurs in women more often than in men, is usually asymptomatic, which means there are no physical indications that they exist. In some cases, however, there are problems for the ribs interpreting pressure on blood vessels or muscles that pass through the neck into the arm. To determine whether a cervical rib is present, it requires X -ray, sonogram, magnetic resonance (MRI) or other computer tomography (CT).
When symptoms occur, they often include sore throat and arm, armor in the arm and hands and weakness or muscle atrophy in the arm. This may be due to the pressure of the rib against the blood vessels and the muscles that leave the neck to the arm. One of the container that can be affected is the subclavian artery, part of the main artery to the arm that passes under the collar bones or shoulder blade. Symptoms of this complication include forearm pain, cold in hand and arm, fogging in the fingers and bluish or white shade into the arm.
Most people who have uterine ribs show no symptoms and remain unconscious about them. No treatment is required in such situations. Other patients begin to feel symptoms when they enter middle age, perhaps due to changes in posture and muscle tone.
If the symptoms are mild, physical therapy can help strengthen the shoulder muscles and open an area through which vessels and nerves patheats in the arm. Exercise of holding and strengthening, ultrasound, electro-stimulation therapy, thermal therapy and chiropractic manipulation are often effective treatment. In some cases, muscle relaxants and anti -inflammatory drugs to relieve pain are also prescribed.
In cases where symptoms are extreme or reduced blood supply is a risk for the arm, a procedure called rib resection may be recommended to remove another rib. Surgical removal of the collarbone ribs began at the beginning of the 20th century, but this difficult procedure often led to damage to nerves and blood vessels. Over the past decades, the rib resection has become safer and morh successful with the introduction of endoscopic surgery that uses small cuts, video and computers.
Complications that may accompany the cervical rib are similar to the complications of several other conditions. If a person who is experiencing these symptoms finds that he has a uterine rib, he should not necessarily assume that the rib causes his discomfort. Is importantBe a complete physical test to make sure that the development of the treatment plan is not present more serious.