[Thoracic disc herniation].

Abstract

Contrary to traditional opinion thoracic herniation is more frequent than expected. The disease poses two main challenges: (1) surgical removal and (2) early and correct diagnosis. It is without a doubt that herniated thoracic discs can be difficult to remove. Often enough, it is equally challenging to attribute the correct symptoms to the disease to reach the diagnosis, because there is a great variability and supposedly low specificity of the clinical symptoms, especially concerning pain related symptoms, which are often attributed to muscular or joint related causes. However, radicular complaints and myelopathic deficits usually predominate, but also algetic symptoms exist in patients harboring this disease. The surgical approach should be a ventral one. The postoperative prognosis is mostly good after adequate decompression.