Band-like or radicular pain should alert the physician to impending spinal cord impression and is a serious complication representing an emergency requiring immediate diagnosis and treatment. Pleuritic pain from pathologic rib and clavicular fractures is common and associated with marked local tenderness. As bone is resorbed, there is an increase of calcium in the blood. Because calcium affects nerve function, weakness and confusion can result. Other symptoms secondary to hypercalcemia include nausea, polyuria, constipation, and eventually coma, as well as deterioration of kidney function due to the precipitation of calcium salts.
Some physicians consider it to be of little use clinically, although some use it extensively.