Lima Memorial Health System Logo
Approximate ER WAIT TIME WAIT TIME MACRO
Lima Memorial eHealth
Careers
Ways to Give

Health Library

Pleurisy
     
Print-Friendly
Bookmarks

Pleurisy

Pleuritis; Pleuritic chest pain

 

Pleurisy is an inflammation of the lining of the lungs and chest (the pleura) that leads to chest pain when you take a deep breath, sneeze, or cough. Often this chest pain feels sharp.

Causes

 

Pleurisy may develop when you have lung inflammation due to infection, such as a viral infection, pneumonia, or tuberculosis.

It may also occur with:

  • Certain cancers
  • Chest trauma
  • Blood clot (pulmonary embolus)
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus)
  • Sickle cell disease
  • Rib fractures

 

Symptoms

 

The main symptom of pleurisy is pain in the chest. This pain often occurs when you take a deep breath in or out, or cough. Some people feel the pain in the shoulder.

Deep breathing, coughing, sneezing, and chest movement make the pain worse.

Pleurisy can cause fluid to collect inside the chest. As a result, the following symptoms can occur:

  • Coughing
  • Shortness of breath
  • Rapid breathing
  • Pain with deep breaths

 

Exams and Tests

 

When you have pleurisy, the normally smooth surfaces lining the lung (the pleura) become rough. They rub together with each breath. This results in a rough, grating sound called a friction rub. Your health care provider may hear this sound with the stethoscope.

Your provider may order the following tests:

  • Complete blood count (CBC)
  • X-ray of the chest
  • CT scan of the chest
  • Ultrasound of the chest
  • Removal of pleural fluid with a needle (thoracentesis) for analysis

 

Treatment

 

Treatment depends on the cause of the pleurisy. Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics. Surgery or insertion of a tube in the chest may be needed to drain infected fluid from the lungs. Viral infections normally run their course without medicines.

Taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help reduce pain.

 

Outlook (Prognosis)

 

Chances for recovery depends on the cause of the pleurisy and your general health condition.

 

Possible Complications

 

Health problems that may develop from pleurisy include:

  • Breathing difficulty
  • Fluid buildup between chest wall and lung
  • Complications from the original illness

 

When to Contact a Medical Professional

 

Contact your provider if you have symptoms of pleurisy. If you have breathing difficulty or your skin turns blue (cyanosis), seek medical care right away.

 

Prevention

 

Early treatment of bacterial respiratory infections can prevent pleurisy.

 

 

Open References

References

Fenster BE, Lee-Chiong TL, Gebhart GF, Matthay RA. Chest pain. In: Broaddus VC, Ernst JD, King TE, et al, eds. Murray & Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 38.

McCool FD. Diseases of the diaphragm, chest wall, pleura, and mediastinum. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 86.

BACK TO TOPText only

 
  • Respiratory system overview

    Respiratory system overview

    illustration

    • Respiratory system overview

      Respiratory system overview

      illustration

     

    Review Date: 7/25/2025

    Reviewed By: David A. Kaufman, MD, Director of Clinical Innovation and Education, Medical Critical Care, NYU Langone Medical Center, Tisch Hospital, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

    The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

    © 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

    All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.
    © 1997- adam.comAll rights reserved.