A compression fracture of the thoracic spine most often happens when there is too much pressure placed on the body of a vertebrae. The most common causes of a thoracic compression fracture are osteoporosis, car accidents, falls, or some type of metastases.
When a thoracic vertebrae is compressed, it most often takes on the shape of a wedge which you can see in the image to the left. Sometimes this wedging can be severe enough that the fractured vertebral body has nowhere to go and ends up pushing out into the spinal canal and compressing the spinal cord.
Thoracic compression fractures are usually pretty apparent right away. They often cause pain not only in the back itself but also in the legs and arms. In some cases when the spinal nerves surrounding the vertebrae are involved in the injury weakness and numbness of the legs and arms can also occur.
The most common treatments for thoracic compression fractures are pain medicines, a lowering of a patient's activity level, or wearing a brace. Surgery is very unlikely for compression fractures unless the case is extremely severe.
CT is usually the modality of choice for the imaging of these types of fractures but MRI can be used in order to determine if surrounding nerves or ligaments are involved.
I found my information for this blog at www.umm.edu/spinecenter and my image at www.learningradiology.com
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