What causes chest pain in children?

If a child has chest pain, it is important to find out whether it is caused by a pleural disease, such as pleurisy, pneumothorax, or lung infection. Also, if the child suffers from some cardiovascular disease, it can also cause this pain symptom. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the cause and then treat it correctly.

1. Pleural diseases

Such as pleurisy, pneumothorax, lung infection, pulmonary infarction, lung tumor, esophageal disease, mediastinal tumor, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, etc. The chest pain caused by these diseases is related to breathing and coughing. Chest pain worsens with deep breathing and coughing, often accompanied by difficulty breathing. Chest pain is localized to the side of the lesion.

2. Cardiovascular disease

The most common ones are angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, followed by pericarditis. This type of chest pain often manifests as compressive, stuffy, or even tearing pain in the precordial area and behind the sternum. It often radiates to the left shoulder, neck and inner side of the left arm, and is accompanied by shock symptoms in severe cases.

3. Chest wall disease

Chest pain can be caused by chest wall contusion, rib fracture, costochondritis, intercostal neuritis, dermatitis, myositis, intermuscular neuralgia, herpes zoster, esophagitis, etc. Herpes zoster causes severe chest pain that runs along the ribs, and dense small blisters appear on the skin after 1-2 days.

4. Organ lesions

Such as subphrenic abscess, acute cholecystitis, acute pancreatitis, etc.

5. Chest trauma

It is common in cases of rib fractures, a history of chest trauma, and chest pain that worsens with breathing or coughing.

6. Spinal diseases

The spinal nerves and autonomic nerves that originate from the cervical and thoracic spinal cord can send branches to the cell wall, cell membrane, diaphragm, heart and other parts. When the cervical and thoracic vertebrae are slightly dislocated, stretched, or inflammatory due to trauma, strain, or exposure to cold, the related spinal nerves or autonomic nerves may be stimulated, causing chest pain. This type of chest pain symptom often worsens with the worsening of spinal lesions and eases with the alleviation of spinal diseases.