Costochondral Chest Pain with Swelling Can Be Treated with Rib Resection

Objective: to show effects and results of costochondral rib resection due to prolonged chest pain together with swelling without underlying disease.material-method: this retrospective study was comprised 14 patients with intractable costochondral pain, swelling and tenderness upon palpation, without any other problems. the time between the onset of intractable chest pain and surgery ranged from 14 to 60 months. whole-body bone scintigraphy and thorax computed tomography were used for imaging. costochondral rib resection was performed. numerical pain rating scale (nrs) was done to determine the effectiveness of surgery before and 2 weeks after operation. pain scales were evaluated by non-parametric mann-whitney u test.results: increased focal activity was diagnosed for the chondral parts of the ribs in three patients scintigraphically with normal tomographic findings. pathologically, enchondroma was identified in two patients and low grade chondrosarcoma in one patient. in all patients pain relief was achieved 1-2 weeks after surgery. the mean postoperative pain score was 0.64 while preoperative one was 9 (p≤0.05).conclusions: after surgical resection elimination of both swelling and pain had very high patient satisfaction. we believe that intractable costal pain with swelling that is not curable by any known means shall be resected but more studies are needed.