Back and Abdominal Pain and Tenderness - Right side only

For about 2 years now I've had an intermittent pain below my ribs on the right side, going around to my back on the same side, right around the bottom of my ribs in the back. I've been to my doctor many times, no major tests have been done, they did chest xrays and found nothing, and said they believed it to be a muscle related problem. The pain feels muscular, but it lasts for days or weeks at a time, then will suddenly go away for awhile. Nothing seems to trigger it, and nothing seems to get rid of it. It's very tender if I touch the area on my stomach under my ribs or if I touch my back/side where it hurts. I can't find anything that this could possibly be, any ideas? It's not painful to the point that I can't function, but it is constantly just there.

[Prem Pillay, MD]

There are several possibilities that come to mind including a rib cartilage inflammation, gallbladder or pancreas problems and of course spinal disc disease.
You do need to seek medical advise and have CTs of the chest and abdomen and perhaps an MRI of the thoraco-lumbar spine done.

[Shelly268]

Hi,
I realize I am not a doctor, but I am curious..sounds a lot like something my husband deals with. He has liver problems. Won't go into all of it, but isn't it possible that the liver is inflammed?

[penwill65]

wow thats interesting, for years i complained about my pain under right rib cage, or behind it, never could get the doctors to figure out what it was, now that i just found out i have neck and back degeneration, that makes since all this time the doctors i was seeing had no clue.........................now i just had to have foracic disk herniation! Imagine that!!! But i never had a MRI untill now, and i just thought it was fibromyalgia all those years!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways you should have a t-spine and a l-spine MRI done as soon as possible.....