Bone pain has many causes: from a simple fracture to serious diseases, such as infection of the bone (osteomyelitis) and bone tumor.
Contents
Pain in the femur
Causes
Some of the most common causes of thigh bone pain include:
- Fracture of the hip bone
- Osteoporosis only in case of a fracture
- Osteoarthritis of the hip (between the femur and pelvis)
- Rheumatisms such as rheumatoid arthritis
- Aseptic necrosis
- Osteomyelitis
- Infections
- Bone calcification or other abnormalities of the hip
- Congenital hip dysplasia
Also, the change in posture during pregnancy can cause hip pain.
You can put a pillow between your legs and under your stomach during sleep: in this way the hip pain can be relieved.
Pain in the joints can also occur during lactation, as the hormone oxytocin produced by the body leads to greater flexibility of the joints and thus they are less stable.
Type of footwear
Bone pain in the hip region often occurs due to injuries.
Pain in the arm bones
Pain in the arm bones interferes with a person’s everyday life.
Some causes of pain in the arm bones
Fracture
The fracture of a bone causes stabbing pain.
The bone can still hurt even after years when the weather changes (two days before it rains or snows).
Bone tumour
There are two types of bone tumors: benign and malignant.
Bone tumors mainly affect the ends of the long bones on the arms and legs. The most common are:
- Osteosarcoma
- Chondrosarcoma
- Ewing’s sarcomas
Chronic pain in the humerus is one of the most common symptoms of bone cancer.
Paget’s
disease In this condition, calcium levels rise above normal, causing bone swelling and pain.
The most affected bones are:
- Pelvic bone
- skull bones,
- Femur
- Shin
- Humerus.
Other diseases
Other diseases that can cause pain in the upper limbs include:
- rheumatoid arthritis,
- Rhizarthrosis or arthrosis of the hand (affects the joint between the large polygonal bone and the first metacarpal bone),
- seasonal flu (causing diffuse pain in bones, joints and muscles).
In most cases, shoulder pain is muscle or tendon pain.
Some people believe that air conditioning, cold or humidity can cause bone pain.
In reality, however, it is a muscle tension, especially of the trapezius.
Pain in the leg bones
There are various diseases and disorders that can cause bone pain:
- Calcium deficiency or vitamin D deficiency weaken the musculoskeletal system.
- Osteoporosis (i.e. the decrease in bone density) causes a mineral deficiency and often occurs in older women.
Injuries and fractures are the most common causes of bone pain. - Osteomyelitis (bone infection) is manifested by symptoms such as swelling, redness of the infected area, and fever.
- Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disease and causes severe bone pain.
- Also, a primary cancer that develops in the bone causes pain.
- A tumor spread in the bone is an uncontrolled cell proliferation and can be both a primary tumor and a bone metastasis.
- Osteoarthritis and gout cause inflammation and severe joint pain, especially in the knees.
- Knee joint arthrosis is felt especially after waking up and after stress.
- Benign tumors (osteoid osteoma) on the femur and shin also cause severe chronic pain at night.
The leg pain can occur at rest, during sleep or at work.
Quick and adequate treatment will help relieve the pain in the legs in a short time.
Constant “leg pain” affects the everyday life of both young athletes and older people.
Causes of pain in the sternum
The sternum is the middle bone of the chest where the ribs meet.
The sternum protects the internal organs of the body, such as the heart and lungs, from injury.
What causes pain in the sternum?
Although pain in the sternum is listed among the symptoms associated with chest pain, the perceived pain is different from lung or heart pain (heart attack and angina).
Costochondritis
Inflammation of the rib cartilage that connects the sternum to the ribs is one of the most common causes of sternum pain.
The pain intensifies when coughing or deep inhalation.
Injuries of the sternoclavicular joint
The sternoclavicular joint (SC) is an anatomical structure that connects the sternum and collarbone.
Trauma to this joint causes mild to severe pain, depending on the extent.
Strictly speaking, anterior or posterior diastase (separation) of the SC joint can cause unbearable pain in the sternum.
Sternum fracture
Another cause of sternum pain is a fracture due to trauma. The sternum can break if a hard object with a corresponding force hits the bone directly.
Causes of pain in the foot bones
The foot bones can hurt due to fractures, especially the heel and the fifth metatarsal.
The front part of the foot can be affected by two particularly painful bone diseases:
- Hallux valgus is a deformation of the first metatarsal bone and can cause bursitis due to the friction of the big toe against the shoe;
- Metatarsalgia is an inflammation of the heads of the metatarsal bones.
Pain in the skull bone
Cranial trauma can be mild or cause a fracture.
A severe blow can cause a cerebral hemorrhage, neurological deficits, headaches, and symptoms of the nose, ears, and eyes.
Non-traumatic neck pain is usually caused by tension of the occipital muscles.
Other causes of bone pain
Sternum pain is also a symptom after open surgery on the heart, as it separates the sternum from neighboring muscles. Other causes of sternum pain are listed below:
- Bone cancer
- Osteomyelitis of the sternum (inflammation caused by an infection of the bone or bone marrow)
The most common causes of bone pain in children
In children, bone and joint pain can be caused by many diseases:
- Lupus
- Lyme disease
- Osteomyelitis
- Leukaemia
- Osteosarcoma
- Septic arthritis
- Synovitis
- Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
- Fracture
Osteoporosis and hyperparathyroidism
If you suffer from hyperparathyroidism (dysfunction of the parathyroid glands), the calcium content of the bones could decrease and thus their structure could become more subtle.
Symptoms include fractures and shrinkage of body size due to the “collapse” of vertebral bodies.
This happens when excessive PTH (parathyroid hormone) is produced and the absorption of high amounts of calcium from the bone occurs, weakening the bones.
Osteoporosis occurs when examinations reveal high calcium levels in the blood and there is insufficient calcium in the bone for a long time. It mostly affects menopausal women.
Osteoporosis does not cause pain, but it does increase the risk of bone fractures.
The doctor checks signs of osteoporosis via a bone density measurement.
In this examination, the density of calcium in the bone is measured.
The device uses special X-ray devices.
