Rib-side pain

Pain in the area between the armpits and the lowest rib. The rib-side is traversed by the foot reverting yīn (jué yīn) liver and foot lesser yáng (shào yáng) gallbladder channels; hence pain in this area is associated with disease of the liver and gallbladder. In addition, heart, lung, spleen, and kidney disease can also affect the chest and rib-side or rib-side and abdomen. Rib-side pain is observed in both external contractions and internal damage patterns. External contraction patterns include wind-damp, summerheat-heat, and epidemic scourges. Internal damage includes qì depression, phlegm-rheum, static blood, and food accumulations. See entries listed below.

Rib-Side Pain

• Wind-cold rib-side pain
• Summerheat-heat rib-side pain
• Lung evil rib-side pain
• Moving qì rib-side pain
• Liver depression rib-side pain
• Liver qì rib-side pain
• Dead blood rib-side pain
• Collecting rheum rib-side pain
• Damp-heat rib-side pain
• Food accumulation rib-side pain
• Dry rib-side pain
• Free-rib pain

Rib-side pain may also occur in disharmony of liver qì, liver blood vacuity, liver yīn vacuity, liver-kidney yīn vacuity, depletion of liver-spleen qì and blood, and depressed liver-gallbladder heat. It may be observed in jaundice. From the modern clinical viewpoint, rib-side pain is also noted in hepatomegaly or splenomegaly.