Burning pain

The chest contains the heart, lungs, esophagus and stomach. A burning pain can originate in any of these organs. – Burning in the thorax

Burning behind the sternum

Although chest pain can have numerous causes, the symptoms initially represent an urgent need to find the cause, since even in addition to the harmless causes, a life-threatening cause must always be assumed.

For this reason, every patient with chest pain should have an ECG to rule out a heart attack. The medical consultation should provide information about the onset, location, duration and type of chest pain as well as about accompanying diseases. Afterwards an ECG should be written and the patient should be physically examined.

This includes a complete examination of the patient’s upper body, the detection of injuries, and the auscultation of heart sounds in order to find possible cardiac arrhythmia. Blood pressure measurements to detect derailments and tapping the sternum with a reflex hammer to diagnose Tietze syndrome should also be performed. The patient’s rib cage and ribs may also be palpated with the fingers to diagnose intercostal neuralgia.

Depending on whether the search for the cause is unsuccessful, the cause should then be sought in the abdominal organs (pressing (palpating) and auscultation of the abdomen). In addition to the ECG, a thorough blood test should not be forgotten, in which inflammation values and heart attack enzymes are measured. If no result is obtained, the patient may be considered to undergo another thorough cardiological examination with cardiac echo and exercise ECG.

Psychosomatic aspects should only be considered after the complete exclusion of organic involvement. In the case of chest pain, which is an absolute emergency situation, the patient must be taken directly to hospital with an emergency ambulance after an ECG and immediate medication. In the case of unilateral pain on the left side of the chest, some causes are more likely than others.

For example, although the heart is located approximately in the middle of the body, it tends to be on the left side of the chest. This is why pain that affects the heart (see: Heart pain) is more often perceived on that side, whether it is of ischemic (blood deficiency in heart attack) or inflammatory origin. A heart attack is usually noticed by pain behind the breastbone, but possibly only by a feeling of pressure on the chest or a pulling in the left breast.

Furthermore, the stomach lies on the left side of the body. As this can project pain into the chest in various diseases, this is more likely to happen on the left side or in the middle. (See: abdominal pain on the left) or heart pain A one-sided organ disease can also be the cause of chest pain (see: Chest pain caused by chest organs).

In the case of diseases of the lungs, it is possible that only one lung is affected, while the other remains healthy for the time being. This may not only be the case with inflammation, but also with other changes. If there are severe inflammatory processes in the lung tissue that cannot be treated or brought under control, the infection can spread to the pleura and cause painful pleuritis.

The pleura consists of two layers – one that lies directly on the lung and one that lies on the inside of the chest – between which there is a gap with fluid. This has the function of keeping the lung in a folded-out state, which is achieved by means of negative pressure in the gap. In pleuritis, which can also be one-sided, every breath hurts.

If the pleuritis progresses further, tears in the lung tissue can occur, whereby the negative pressure escapes and the lung collapses – a pneumothorax develops, which can cause pain on the corresponding side in addition to breathing difficulties. In women, a left-sided disease of the mamma can cause chest pain. Muscular or bony changes or injuries can also occur on the left side only. Tension or tears in the chest muscles after excessive training or hard work are more likely to be male problems, as they are more often involved in weight training.