Treatment

Chest pain treatment varies depending on what's causing your pain.

Medications

Drugs used to treat some of the most common causes of chest pain include:

• Artery relaxers. Nitroglycerin — usually taken as a tablet under the tongue — relaxes heart arteries, so blood can flow more easily through the narrowed spaces. Some blood pressure medicines also relax and widen blood vessels.
• Aspirin. If health care providers think that your chest pain is related to your heart, you'll likely be given aspirin.
• Thrombolytic drugs. If you are having a heart attack, you may receive these clot-busting drugs. These work to dissolve the clot that is blocking blood from reaching the heart muscle.
• Blood thinners. If you have a clot in an artery feeding your heart or lungs, you'll likely be given drugs that interfere with blood clotting to prevent more clots from forming.
• Acid-suppressing medications. If chest pain is caused by stomach acid splashing into the esophagus, a health care provider may suggest medications that reduce the amount of acid in the stomach.
• Antidepressants. If you're having panic attacks, your health care provider may prescribe antidepressants to help control symptoms. Talk therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, also might be recommended.

Surgical and other procedures

Procedures to treat some of the most dangerous causes of chest pain include:

• Angioplasty and stent placement. Chest pain that is caused by a blockage in an artery feeding the heart is typically treated with angioplasty. The doctor inserts a catheter with a balloon on the end into a large blood vessel, usually in the groin, and guides the catheter to the blockage. The doctor inflates the balloon to widen the artery, then deflates it and removes the catheter. A small wire mesh tube (stent) is often placed on the outside of the balloon tip of the catheter. When expanded, the stent locks into place to keep the artery open.
• Bypass surgery. During this procedure, surgeons take a blood vessel from another part of the body and use it to create an alternative route for blood to go around the blocked artery.
• Emergency dissection repair. You may need emergency surgery to repair an aortic dissection — a life-threatening condition in which the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body ruptures.
• Lung reinflation. If you have a collapsed lung, a health care provider may insert a tube in the chest to reinflate the lung.