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DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1722587
Costovertebral Osteoarthrosis: Rare Differential Diagnosis of Back pain in young patients. Case Report[*]
Article in several languages: português | English
Abstract
The differential diagnosis of dorsal thoracic pain can be a challange due to the proximity of the dorsal column to vital organs as well as to its unique anatomy, innervation, and rib joint. The patterns of referred visceral pain require, in most cases, extensive complementary diagnostic tests in order to exclude severe conditions. Referred pain patterns often result in numerous and expensive visceral workups in order to exclude serious conditions, and costovertebral joint osteoarthritis is usually only considered when the origin of the pain remains unexplained. The authors present the case of a 40-year-old man with disabling dorsal pain due to isolated costovertebral osteoarthrosis. The symptomatology was controlled after injection of methylprednisolone guided by computed tomography. This clinical case aims to describe the clinical presentation of a rare entity that should be considered in the differential diagnosis of back pain.
* Work developed in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Hospital Santa Maria, Porto, Portugal.
Publication History
Received: 13 September 2020
Accepted: 09 October 2020
Article published online:
31 March 2021
© 2021. Sociedade Brasileira de Ortopedia e Traumatologia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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