Pain under the collarbone in front: causes and diseases that cause the symptom, methods of treatment using manual therapy

There are many organs and tissues in our body that can hurt. Pain in the clavicle on the left is not so common, but not a rare occurrence. The collarbone on the left can begin to hurt for many reasons. Some will even be quite new to you. But at the same time, you don’t need to immediately panic and run to do various x-rays and ultrasound diagnostics of your left collarbone. In order to find out what may be the cause of pain in your left collarbone, I suggest you read this article.

The collarbone is a fairly small S-shaped bone that is located at the top of the spine and connects to the scapula on the shoulder, and in more detail near our neck, if you put your finger on the end of the neck, you can directly feel our collarbone. Thanks to our collarbone, which connects to the scapula, we can rotate our arm through a large range of motion.

Injuries

The first reason why the collarbone on the left hurts is injuries that you could have received before and have already managed to score for them.

The collarbone can be damaged by various injuries, such as fractures, severe bruises, and cracks. If you have been injured recently, then remember the symptoms that may occur:

swelling in the shoulder area;
there may be noticeable blue discoloration around the collarbone;
quite severe pain when moving my left arm, and, accordingly, my left collarbone.

What does the doctor recommend? First of all, if you see blue discoloration, then you need to go to the doctor and get an x-ray so that the doctor can make a correct diagnosis of a bruise or perhaps a fracture of your left collarbone, and therefore you may experience severe pain in the collarbone on the left or in the collarbone on the right.

Aching and nagging pain under the collarbone when inhaling

Quite often, pain under the collarbone appears when inhaling through movement of the chest. A characteristic clinical sign is that when inhaling using the movement of the diaphragm (stomach), there is no pain under the collarbone.

In order to find out the cause of such aching pain under the collarbone, it is necessary to exclude pathologies of the intercostal muscles, neuralgia, diseases of the lung tissue and bronchial tree. Usually, it is enough to collect the patient’s history and complaints. With diseases of the respiratory system, shortness of breath, cough, and general weakness will be present. And with pathologies of the intercostal muscles and neuralgia, it is certainly possible to detect pain on palpation of the chest.

If the nagging pain under the collarbone is provoked by cervical osteochondrosis with radicular syndrome, then the following accompanying signs can be detected:

pain on palpation of the neck and collar area;
muscle tension in the collar area and shoulders;
difficulty moving the head;
pain spreads along the entire nerve fiber, i.e. may be observed in the forearm, shoulder, wrist, etc.

For diagnosis, it is necessary to take an x-ray, ECG, MRI or CT examination. The primary diagnosis can be made by an orthopedist, neurologist or chiropractor. You can get their free consultation at any time that is convenient for you in our manual therapy clinic.

Shoulder arthritis

Arthritis of the shoulder joint may be the reason why your collarbone hurts on the left. Arthritis is an inflammatory process that occurs with severe pain in the left collarbone. Today, doctors define several types of arthritis of the shoulder joint :

gouty arthritis of the shoulder joint;
rheumatoid arthritis of the shoulder joint;
and other less popular arthritis of the shoulder joint.

Arthritis of the shoulder joint can occur even at an early age (even in a child) and in an elderly person. Moreover, in the early stages this disease is quite difficult to diagnose.

With arthritis of the shoulder joint, you will feel incredibly severe pain in your left collarbone and your left limb may eventually lose its physical abilities, which can even cause paralysis of the limb. Therefore, you should not joke with arthritis and, if possible, if you feel that something is wrong, you should urgently go to the doctor for a routine medical examination.

Arthrosis of the shoulder joint

Why does the left collarbone hurt with arthrosis? The fact is that arthrosis is not very different, but still differs from arthritis in that with arthrosis the symptoms and pain in the left collarbone or in the shoulder joint are not so noticeable. Symptoms of arthrosis include severe aching pain in the left collarbone area, as well as an inability to move your left limb. Of course, such dangerous consequences as with arthritis are not observed, but there is a danger. Therefore, if you suspect that you may have this or that disease, you need to rush to the doctor and be treated as prescribed.

What is the difference between pain under the left and right collarbone?

It is important to understand that pain under the left collarbone in some cases can be associated with myocardial diseases. These are angina pectoris, coronary heart disease, atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary blood vessels, valve disease, myocardial infarction, etc. Also, false pain under the left clavicle can occur with the cardiac type of vegetative-vascular dystonia. therefore, if such a symptom appears, you should immediately contact your doctor and ask for a referral for an ECG.

This examination will exclude organic, vascular and neurological damage to the heart muscle. Next, you should consult a neurologist regarding the diagnosis of vegetative-vascular dystonia. And only after this should you look for pathology of the musculoskeletal system (arthrosis, arthritis, deformity, traumatic damage to the acromial or sternal joint).

The first difference between pain under the right collarbone is the exclusion of vascular and cardiac pathology. When such a symptom appears, you can immediately begin diagnosing diseases of the bone and cartilage, articular and spinal structures. It is important to exclude the following pathologies step by step:

arthritis of the sternoclavicular or acromioscapular joint (manifested by severe pain on palpation, inflammation and swelling of the joint capsule);
arthrosis of similar joints (manifested by a characteristic crunch when moving, pain on palpation, limited mobility in the shoulder joint);
habitual dislocation of the collarbone (often occurs in people who are accustomed to actively gesturing with their hands during an emotional conversation; the displacement of the collarbone is visible to the naked eye in the form of a deformation of the chest in this area);
inflammation of the lymph nodes;
rheumatism, inflammation of joints and bone tissue;
bone tuberculosis and other dangerous infections.

Only an experienced doctor can detect the exact cause of pain under the collarbone. Already during the collection of anamnesis and the initial examination, he will be able to make a preliminary diagnosis and prescribe additional examinations. Do not waste time, do not engage in self-diagnosis and treatment. Sign up for a free initial consultation with our orthopedist.

Myositis

Myositis can also cause pain under the left collarbone. Myositis is inflammation of the muscles around the left collarbone. Myositis causes very severe pain in the left collarbone and can almost immobilize your left arm through the pain. Myositis is a rather interesting disease, since it is difficult to determine without doing a whole set of tests and ultrasound diagnostics. In the early stages, the doctor may not immediately tell you the correct diagnosis, since the test results may be almost the same as for a severe injury. Severe pain in the left collarbone will only confirm the incorrect diagnosis of the bruise. Therefore, myositis needs to be checked very seriously and found a competent doctor who can make the correct diagnosis.

Diagnostics

A specialized specialist prescribes the necessary studies. As a rule, this is a surgeon, therapist or traumatologist. In some cases, consultation with a urologist, neurologist or rheumatologist is required.

Clinical and biochemical blood test.
Ultrasound examination of the shoulder joint.
X-ray examination of the clavicle. Often after it is carried out it is already possible to make a diagnosis. It allows you to assess the condition of the bones.
Magnetic resonance imaging.
CT scan.
Arthroscopic examination of the shoulder joint. A very informative examination that helps to examine the inside of the joint.

Osteomyelitis

Pain in the collarbone area can also be explained by a disease such as osteomyelitis. Osteomyelitis is a very terrible, unsafe and serious disease. When you get osteomyelitis, the bone (in our case, the left collarbone) becomes inflamed, which leads to terrible and unbearable pain in the left collarbone. If your bone is inflamed, it may also mean that there is a severe infection somewhere in your body. This strong and unsafe infection can spread throughout your body and begin to “quietly” destroy it (kill living and useful cells in the body with an infection that is caused by the disease osteomyelitis). This disease can even be fatal. At best, you can get by with amputation of your left arm from the collarbone itself. But there are also less terrible consequences of osteomyelitis. If you feel pain in your left collarbone and consult a doctor in time, the disease can be prevented by timely tests and also proper treatment.

Prevention and treatment

The therapeutic course will depend on the diagnosis. If we are talking about a fracture, then a traumatologist should be involved in the treatment. The basis of therapy, as a rule, is medication and physiotherapeutic procedures; if necessary, surgical intervention is indicated. To relieve pain, the doctor prescribes the patient to take analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and topical ointments. In the absence of contraindications, a course of therapeutic massage and exercise therapy is prescribed.

It is impossible to completely eliminate the likelihood of pain in the collarbone area, however, a preventive complex will reduce the likelihood of:

Regular exercise, pre-warm-up. Technically and regularly performed physical exercises can prevent the development of osteochondrosis and myalgia.
Timely and competent treatment of viral and infectious diseases. This will prevent the occurrence of pain as a result of the development of myalgia.
If you are injured, you must immediately contact a medical facility for examination and further treatment if necessary.

Joint displacement

If you feel pain on the left side in the area of the collarbone, then you may have a displacement of the joints. Displacement of the joints is not such an unsafe disease, but it is quite unpleasant. Displacement of the joints is a kind of dislocation of the clavicular bone itself. Even with a minor dislocation, you can feel both acute pain and not so severe pain.

Symptoms that can be observed with dislocation of the clavicle joints:

slight swelling;
small blue areas on the skin may also appear;
if you lightly press on the collarbone, you feel a sharp, severe pain;
with severe displacement of the joints, the collarbone temporarily loses its ability to move, and accordingly you will not be able to move your arm due to severe pain.

You may also experience pain in your collarbone when you inhale. Such pain can also be caused by displacement of the joints, but in the other direction, the one that touches your sternum, as a result of which you may experience pain. These circumstances, due to their unpleasant nature, can cause you a lot of trouble. Therefore, you need to consult a doctor as soon as possible.

Other reasons

Soreness in the left collarbone can also occur as a person ages. The older a person is, the more health problems he may have. In older people, the compositions may wear off over time, and the liquid that is between the bones may also disappear . All these problems for older people are almost inevitable and such a course of affairs will await each of us. But there are many different medications that will help you continue to maintain your condition and health at a good level. For example, those same vitamins or nutrients can help slow down the process of eliminating your tissues and cells, but remember not your aging process. Some people prefer to think that if they constantly use such substances they will still be young.