Symptoms of costochondritis:
- The pain, which may be dull, usually will be sharp and located on your front chest wall. It may radiate to your back or abdomen and is more common on your left side.
- There can be pain with a deep breath or cough.
- The most common sites of pain are your fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs. This pain increases as you move your trunk or take deep breaths. Conversely, it decreases as your movement stops or with quiet breathing.
- The reproducible tenderness you feel when you press on the rib joints (costochondral junctions) is a constant feature of costochondritis. Without this tenderness, a diagnosis of costochondritis is unlikely.
- When costochondritis occurs as a result of infection after surgery, you will see redness, swelling, or pus discharge at the site of the surgery.