Clinical Significance of Cervical Ribs

Volume : VIII, Issue : V, May - 2018

Dr. Ayesha Nuzhat, Dr. Hajar Almutairi

Cervical rib refers to a supernumerary rib extending from seventh cervical vertea to the first rib or sternum causing

neurovascular compression. The objective of this study was to identify prevalence of cervical ribs and report the resulting

clinical symptoms and outcome in patients attending a tertiary care center in Riyadh, KSA. Data were collected from database of Radiology

Department and patients files (Cortex) at KFMC, between January 2012–September 2017 after approval of the study from the IRB of KFMC (IRB

No–17–349). In our study, Cervical ribs were bilateral in 134(62%)cases and more frequent in females 154(71.3%) than in males62(28.7%).

Nearly half of the cases 108(50%) were asymptomatic and detected by routine radiological investigations for other conditions. Among those who

were symptomatic, neck pain 46(21.3%) and shoulder pain 32(14.8%) were the most common prevailing symptoms. Limb weakness and

numbness was reported in 10(4.6%) of cases each, whereas few cases had swelling 2(0.9%), vertigo 5(2.3%), and headache 3(1.4%). Statistically

significant association with (p value=0.007*) was observed between age groups and symptoms. Another interesting finding noted was that

24(11.1%) of cases out of 216 had associated anomalies.