OB Cough Induced Rib Fracture? YEP. It’s a Thing.

Stress fractures are common injuries in athletes and military recruits, that’s’ understandable- based on the physical forces placed on the long bones. A stress fracture can be defined as a partial or complete fracture of the bone that is a result from repeated application of stress lower than that required to fracture the bone in a single loading situation. In pregnancy, the body is subjected to various physiological changes that make women more vulnerable. In this pregnancy, we will highlight a REAL patient case which our team cared for on the inpatient service where a simple cough at 34 weeks leads to a painful spontaneous rib fracture! Is there any data published on this? Are serum tests for bone turn-over required as part of this workup? Listen in for clinical pearls!

1. 1962: Long A.E.: “Stress fracture of the ribs associated with pregnancy”. Surg. Clin. North Am., 1962, 42, 909.

2. 2000: Baitner AC, Bernstein AD, Jazrawi AJ, Della Valle CJ, Jazrawi LM. Spontaneous rib fracture during pregnancy. A case report and review of the literature. Bull Hosp Jt Dis. 2000;59(3):163-5. PMID: 11126720. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11126720/

3. 2015: Rib stress fractures in pregnancy: a case report and review of literature. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/file:///C:/Users/hchapa/Downloads/1575956493464-5157163%20(1).pdf

4. Zhang Y, Li R, Zhang J, Zhou W, Yu F. Changes in Serum Concentrations of Bone Turnover Markers in Healthy Pregnant Women. International Journal of Clinical Practice. 2023.