A Problematic Rib: Cervical Rib

During my spare time, I usually love to watch videos of some of the beautiful ladies I look up to on YouTube, and it was one of those videos I was watching last week when she mentioned she had been away for some time because it was discovered she has a cervical rib.

Image credit

This was actually the first time I would be hearing about cervical ribs; she went on to explain briefly what she knew about it and how she was now recovering. You already know that we are friends here, and when I learn about a new condition like this, I always run here to share, so let's enjoy this new knowledge together; it doesn't even matter if you know about it before.

A cervical rib is actually an extra bone that can be found at the back of the neck at birth. It often starts from the lowest bone around your neck and has the possibility of extending to the first top rib in your chest area.

Another name for cervical rib is neck rib, or supernumerary rib in the cervical region. They are usually attached to the seventh cervical vertebra, as they vary in size, shape, and attachment sites.

A cervical rib doesn't have any function; it has no addition to the body. Some people who have it may not even notice until they die, but for others, it creates a situation of pain in the arm or difficulty with using the hand to be able to grip an item.

Image credit

The cervical rib usually has a head, neck, and tubercle. In order for a cervical rib to be considered a rib, it has to articulate with the transverse process. Unilateral cervical ribs are more frequently found on the left-hand side than on the right side; they also occur more frequently than bilateral cervical ribs.

Cervical ribs are of four types:

Type 1 is a complete rib type that reaches your first rib.

Type 2 is an incomplete rib with one end that does not attach to anything.

Type 3 is also an incomplete rib that tends to attach to a fibrous band.

Type 4 is a short bone that tends to stick out from the lowest vertebra in the neck.

Most of the people who experience symptoms of cervical rib are often those with a bad posture or who have experienced trauma in their upper body. When symptoms are experienced, they come in the form of a lump in the neck, pain in the arm or neck, weakness in the hand and forearm muscles, tingling or numbness in the arm or hand, as well as clawing.

This is the structure of the skeletal system; it originates from the mesoderm. The paraxial mesodermic cells are what give rise to somites on both sides of the neural tube; they are then further subdivided into sclerotome, ventral, dorsal, and dermatome.

The cells of these described sclerotomes convert into mesenchymal cells, which would then develop into future ribs. These cells are then guided into the proper location by Hox genes and growth differentiation factor. The mutations in these genes are what researchers believe to be a result of abnormal development and patterning of ribs.

Image credit

During the early developmental stage of the child, it is possible for the costal element of the developed mesenchymal cells that are located in the incorrect place, most often the atrophy, but when they fail to do so, they get ossified and present an elongated transverse process or complete rib.

However, in some situations, it may be too small to get to the sternum, and it would fuse anteriorly below the first rib. It is possible for a cervical rib to cause complications, where there is a nerve compression or that of the subclavian artery. A cervical rib could possibly cause thoracic outlet syndrome, which could be dangerous when left untreated.

If a cervical rib doesn't come with symptoms, then there would be no need for treatment. If there are symptoms, treatments include:

Physical therapy, which can be used to treat the compression of the nerve of the cervical rib.

Medications can be provided to help with the relaxing of the muscle or pain relief that would help with discomfort. If the rib is causing thoracic outlet syndrome, a surgery would be performed. To help with better symptom prevention, the rib may need to be removed alongside the cervical rib.

Conclusion.

There are two sides to cervical rib; symptoms may not show at all, and in this case there is no cause for alarm, but when symptoms begin to show, then there is a need for treatment, and a visit to the hospital is what would guarantee that.

For Further Studies.

https://www.scielo.cl/pdf/ijmorphol/v37n4/0717-9502-ijmorphol-37-04-1522.pdf

https://www.physio-pedia.com/Cervical_Rib

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/014556132095049

Hi, I am Tobi, a writer, speaker, relationship blogger, and lover of good music. I love making friends and learning from people.