ABSTRACT

Objective:

To emphasize the importance of thoracic disc herniation, a rare cause in the differential diagnosis of chronic back pain.

Materials and Methods:

A retrospective analysis was performed for the results of epicrisis and radiological examinations of 437 patients (206 males and 231 females; age range: 16–88 years; mean age: 47.98 ± 18.41 years) who suffered from chronic back pain and were admitted to our center between January 2010 and September 2013. 30 patients treated conservatively were included in this study (13 males and 17 females; mean age: 51.23 ± 17.19 years).

Results:

T2–3, T3–4 and T4–5 disc herniations were observed only in female patients, while T1–2 disc herniation was not observed in any patients. 30% of all the thoracic herniations were T11–12 disc herniations, which were observed more in the female population (47.1%) than in the male population (7.7%), and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.042). When considering disc degeneration, grade 4 was the second most frequent degeneration after grade 3, with grade 4 degeneration observed in 58.8% of the female population and 15.4% of the male population, which was statistically significant (p=0.016).

Conclusion:

Most thoracic disc herniations are asymptomatic. Conservative treatment is preferred, if there is no spinal cord compression in the natural course of the disease. However, surgical treatment is necessary for patients with neurological deficit or severe radicular pain.