A Puzzling and Rare Cause of Chest and Shoulder Pain: Migrated Foreign Body to the Spleen

Abstract

To the Editor: Discomfort and pain are the sensory experiences most commonly evoked from visceral organs. Many forms of visceral pain are felt in regions of the body other than the organ whose stimulation caused pain, a process termed “referred pain” by Head ⇓. Referred visceral pain is often accompanied by tenderness and hyperalgesia in the somatic region of referral. This referred pain is one of the most characteristic features of visceral pain and provides a valuable clinical diagnostic tool ⇓. Meller ⇓ stated, “It is crucial to the effective treatment of chronic and persistent pain to have a better understanding of the mechanisms that underline the different types of hyperalgesia.” When the source and site of pain may be different, this phenomenon is known as referred pain ⇓, which is one aspect of nociception. Common examples of referred pain are scapular pain due to biliary colic, groin pain due to renal colic, and shoulder pain due to blood or infection irritating the diaphragm. We report on the case of a 41-year-old man, who reported a 4-month history of pain originating from the left shoulder and disseminating to the left upper chest region, especially when working and also triggered by effort. The duration of pain was measured in hours. At that time, he was admitted to the cardiology …