Cyriax syndrome in a young male professional soccer player: A case report

Abstract

Cyriax syndrome is a neglected cause of lower chest or upper abdominal pain. The pain is due to an irritation of the intercostal nerves by the incomplete dislocation of the costal cartilage of the ribs. This study presents a rare case of a young male soccer player with cyriax syndrome and offers medical insight into the clinical diagnosis and one therapeutic modality of this condition. He came to the sports clinic reporting severe pain in the right lower rib cage near the costal cartilage junction which he has experienced for about three weeks. A chest x-ray detected nothing. After the failure of initial conservative measures, persistence of the pain led authors to initiate two separate local infiltrations using 1% lidocaine ten days apart. This resulted in a gradual decrease in pain. Cyriax syndrome is an unrecognised pathology, thus it is important for team physicians to consider this diagnosis when assessing athletes with persistent chest pain.