Costotransversectomy in the Surgical Treatment of Mediolateral Thoracic Disk Herniations: Long-Term Results and Recent Minimally Invasive Technical Adjuncts.

Abstract

Thoracic herniated disks are relatively rare. They account for approximately 2% of all intervertebral herniated disks in large series. Traditional surgery via laminectomy has frequently yielded disappointing results, although the recent literature reports that anterior calcified thoracic herniation was successfully treated with this approach. This issue has encouraged a search for alternatives, such as anterolateral, lateral, and posterolateral approaches to the thoracic spine. From January 2009 to December 2019, we selected 66 patients harboring a symptomatic median-paramedian herniated disk at the level of the thoracic spine, treated at the authors' institutions. The present experience would give further support to the use of costotrasversectomy, along with its "mini-invasive" modifications, as a suitable and safe approach for thoracic disk disease. Although we must admit that endoscopy is likely to become the gold standard of surgical method in the future and that the anterior approach with mini-toracotomy without rib removal will become popular, the future scenario could certainly reserve an important place for the approach we have used in the surgical management of this challenging spinal pathology, mainly because of the approach's versatility and short learning curve.