Thoracic disc herniation and spinal cord injury.

A 52-yr-old male developed progressive thoracic myelopathy after a fall. At laminectomy using the standard posterior approach, he was found to have a herniated thoracic disc compressing the spinal cord. Postoperatively, he was paraplegic. We had a series of three such patients. This paper discusses the problems associated with discectomy using the standard posterior approach and reviews the literature about the alternative approaches for surgical treatment available today.