Costochondritis: a morbid complication in a survivor of cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Complications from closed-chest cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have been described almost exclusively on the basis of autopsy results. A survivor of CPR with clinical costochondritis resulting from resuscitation is described for the first time in the medical literature. In this case, the confounding presence of post-CPR costochondritis in a patient with documented coronary artery disease was suggested by marked local tenderness of the affected costochondral junctions. Differentiation between costochondritis and coronary artery disease was established by injection therapy of the involved costochondral joints.