An Initial Presentation of Flank Pain Caused by Thoracic Disc Herniation

Symptomatic thoracic disc herniation is less common than herniation in the cervical or lumbosacral regions, and has no characteristic or obvious neurological disability at first presentation. This increases the difficulty of an early diagnosis. Patients often experience an extensive workup and/or invasive procedures targeting other disorders before diagnosis. We present a case involving a 48-year-old male who came to our emergency room with a chief complaint of flank pain. Thoracic disc herniation was finally diagnosed in less than one day after an abdominal computed tomography scan at our emergency room due to highly alertness of our emergency doctor. The patient recovered after discectomy with miniopen transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. No more flank pain has occurred postoperatively.