History of Slipping Rib Syndrome

From A Comprehensive Review of Slipping Rib Syndrome: Treatment and Management 

PMCID: PMC7901126  PMID: 33633425 

Slipping rib syndrome (SRS) is a constellation of symptoms that originates from irritation of the intercostal nerve traveling along the undersurface of the ribcage.

The condition was originally described in 1919 by Edgar Ferdinand Cyriax, a British orthopedic surgeon who proposed that downstream branches of the nerve were aggravated by disrupted ribs.

He gave SRS its lesser-known name, Cyriax syndrome.

The first documented treatment of the condition is credited to Eleanor Davies-Colley, the first female fellow in the history of the Royal College of Surgeons; in 1922, she published cases of two female patients whom she treated by removing the mobile cartilage of the tenth rib, providing immediate symptomatic relief.

In 1980, following Davies-Colley’s publication over half a century, J.T. Wright, a renowned gastroenterologist at London Hospital, was still working to call attention to the diagnosis. He proceeded to fault the medical community, as many were still ignorant of the fact that the condition originates from a musculoskeletal rather than a gastrointestinal origin.

 While still relatively unfamiliar to most providers, recent publications estimate that SRS accounts for approximately five percent of all musculoskeletal chest pain in primary care.

Back to  What is Slipping Rib Syndrome?