A thoracic disc herniation is a disc herniation in the thoracic spine.
Epidemiology
Thoracic disc herniations are the rarest form of disc herniation and account for only 0.25-0.75 % of all disc herniations in the spine1.
Treatment
Like lumbar and cervical disc herniations, thoracic disc herniations do not always require surgical treatment. In a case series of 72 patients, only 27 % of patients ultimately required surgical decompression2.
Imaging
References
Arce, Carlos A., and George J. Dohrmann. "Herniated thoracic disks." Neurologic clinics 3.2 (1985): 383-392. ↩ ↩
Brown, Courtney W., et al. "The natural history of thoracic disc herniation." Spine 17.6 Suppl (1992): S97-102. ↩ ↩