Pain that starts in the front of the chest or in the back, near the spine, and develops along the path of a rib, and that is unresponsive to chiropractic treatment, may be an outbreak of shingles.
The patient will describe no injury or trauma, no upper respiratory infection or cough, which might be affecting the region. Yet the pain persistently worsens.
A shingles viral outbreak follows the path of the related sensory nerve, called a “dermatome.” Dermatomes wrapping around in the thoracic region resemble the paths of our ribs, so initial symptoms of shingles are often misinterpreted as rib pain.
Anyone who has had chicken pox carries the herpes zoster virus in the nerve ganglia alongside their spine. The virus is dormant until conditions such as hyperthermia or stress trigger an outbreak.
