Bifid rib

Last revised by Liz Silverstone ◉ ◈ on 9 Jan 2025

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Gaillard F, Walizai T, Kearns C, et al. Bifid rib. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 28 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-990

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-990

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/990

rID:

990

Article created:

2 May 2008, Frank Gaillard ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Frank Gaillard had no recorded disclosures.

View Frank Gaillard's current disclosures

Last revised:

9 Jan 2025, Liz Silverstone ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Liz Silverstone had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Liz Silverstone's current disclosures

Revisions:

27 times, by 19 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Chest, Musculoskeletal

Sections:

Anatomy

Tags:

refs, variant

Synonyms:

Forked rib
Bifid ribs
Forked ribs
Bifurcated rib
Bifurcated ribs

A bifid or bifurcated rib is a congenital skeletal abnormality where the affected rib has a forked sternal end. They are thought to occur in ~0.2% of the population and there may be a female and right-sided predilection ².

It typically involves the 3rd/4th rib (incidence: 3rd/4th > 5th > 6th > 2nd) ^ref.

Epidemiology

Associations

Clinical presentation

Usually asymptomatic, they may cause musculoskeletal pain or intercostal nerve entrapment. A bifid first rib can be an uncommon cause of thoracic outlet syndrome.