How to relieve shoulder blade pain easily at home? How and when it gets serious? What are the possible causes? Let’s find the answers to these questions and a few more.
Also known as “interscapular pain,” pain between shoulder blades is very common. You may have aching, sore, dull, and shooting pain at the mid-back of your shoulder blades.
Usually, there is nothing serious about it, and it gets better in a few days. However, it can also be a sign of some more serious health conditions. Although it is not serious, it can surely disturb the quality of your life. Read on to find everything about shoulder blade pain.
What are the possible causes?
There may be various possible causes of shoulder blade pain. An injured muscle or tendon usually causes the pain, and the injury may cause due to:
- Wrong exercise
- Heavy lifting
- Poor sitting position
- Prolonged hours of working at computers
- Muscle strain while sleeping.
Injuries to other different body parts like spine fracture, rotator cuff tears, or any type of injury due to trauma can also be responsible for pain at shoulder blades. Some other but rare causes of pain are:
- Osteoarthritis of ribs, spine, neck
- Spinal stenosis
- Acid reflux
- Fibromyalgia
- Scoliosis
- Shingles
- Myofascial pain syndrome
- Nerve compression
- Certain cancers like lymphomas, lung cancer, liver cancer, bone cancer, mesothelioma, oesophageal cancer, etc.
- Gallstone
Shoulder blade pain can also be one of the heart attack symptoms, especially in women’s cases. It may be accompanied by other signs like shortness of breath and chest pain. If you suffer from these three symptoms at a time, you should not waste any time and seek immediate medical attention.
At times, sharp, severe pain in the upper-middle back is also a sign of rupture to the thoracic aorta. In such a case, the patient may suffer from severe pain and is more often than not a medical emergency.
Pulmonary embolism is another very serious condition and can be a factor responsible for shoulder blade pain. People with pulmonary embolism may complain about a sudden, sharp pain at the shoulder blade. It happens when the blood clots in the legs are breaking down and travel to the lungs. One of the major symptoms of pulmonary embolism is shortness of breath, and it also needs immediate medical attention.
When should you see a doctor?
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