surgical center for thoracic herniated disk

[Emptynester]

I have an MRI confirmed thoracic herniated disk. After reading about it on the Internet I'm realizing it is a rare condition. Therefore, I'm looking for the top surgical center in the country to be treated/operated on. I'm looking for the center that has the most experience doing VATS to treat it. Like others, I have been to 8 doctors trying to explain the reason for the symptoms I've been experiencing over the past 2.5 years. The pain is overwhelming my life. Actually, my husband is an Internist and I'm an RN. He has only had one patient with a thoracic herniated disk in his 29 years of practice. She had surgery (with a huge incision) that helped for a year but the pain returned. I'm trying to avoid her experience. We are waiting for an opinion from our local neurosurgeon but I'm trying to get opinions from other experts. My husband doesn't get neurosurgical journals so is difficult for him to find this information. Besides that, he is so incredibly busy with his own practice that I'm trying to do research on the Internet. Thanks in advance for any help.

Emptynester

[Sipp]

Thanks much. I am sorry I over generalized I guess what I really meant was this particular surgeon really seem uniformed about the reason I was really there in the first place. I understand that their are alot of reasons not to have surgery, but I mostly concerned because there isnt a cause (such as an accident) to any of this and I am afraid of it progressing. I will find out if I can upload my mri. I am meeting with my PCP tomorrow and will get the copies of them.

PS could leg weakness be related to this and a feeling like I am sort of walking funny?

[Dr_Nassim]

Dear  all

Right ! Thoracic are rarest than other segments' herniations and the surgery necessitate a 20 cm incision approximately, but everything will be closed esthetically.

In general "Sipp", doctors care a lot, now exceptions exist in all professions, but remember neurosurgery is not evident science and the patient should always ask and wait for answer, don’t be in hurry even if pain is annoying, you were waiting for months and years, remember, lol

Sorry, about the best center in the USA I don’t know, (because I am Lebanese) and even though I don’t have the right to tell my preference (this is medically unethical).

Now let us speak about your cases each one individually, I guess each one of you definitely has a particular case even though the final result comes into single form of mid-back pain with some irradiating to the ribs.

Doctors like to be far from the thoracic spine because this part is so precious and fragile and in some degree vital for life. They like to "postpone" so, if it is possible load your medical digital MRI photos into your accounts and notify me please and let us assess together the degree of disc herniation. Be aware that disc herniation could also mask the joint problem, I mean the problem could be not the disc but the joint !!
Always look in the past for a small (or big) cause like a trauma, car accident !, because when really no cause is found we should do many investigations in the direction of Rheumatology.
Gabapentin and Pergabalin always help, but do we really need them ? is this a neural pain ?
Cortisol (steroids)  are effective in joint pathology ?
But do we really need to be treated with them regardless to their side effects? Do we need to substitute our organisms by calcium or anti osteoporotic treatment ?
These are my questions to you and to all patients who do not know why doctors are so hesitating !
What about the effective surgeries, screwing has sometimes same effect as simple laminectomies
Overall Ananas juice is excellent in joint problems !
Ok and also remember that physiotherapy may aggravate situation in many cases, increasing the herniation, so use physiotherapy prudently.

Waiting for your feedback
Dr nassim

[Sipp]

I have the same thing. Well displaced disks from T1-T2 and T2-T3. They are compressing my spinal cord. The pain is unbearable even on vicoden. I went and had a consult with a neurosurgeon yesterday who told me I shouldn't have surgery because I am only 23 and there are alot of risks. I am not inclined to trust this guy because I had to explain to him what was wrong with my spine (when i came in his office he started showing me an mri of my brain I had done a year from for an unrelated problem lol). Im wondering if anyone knows if it is a good idea to "put off surgery til things get worse" as he told me. I understand "worse" basically means loss of function and I already am losing strength and experiencing numbness on top of the pain. Is this a normal course of treatment when two discs are pushing against your spinal cord. Especially when its so rare in this region and I have never had an injury. Im 23 shouldn't the doctors be looking into some sort of degeneration problem that caused this to happen in the first place? Why do the doctors not even explain ANYTHING to us. Why dont they care? Maybe some are just incompetent which i have to assume about the guy who hadnt viewed my mri before the consult and couldnt even look at the date the mri he was viewing was taken to know he was looking at the wrong one.

[CuriousHound]

I am experiencing the same thing; pain is debilitating; I'm taking Neurontin for nerve pain.  It does help with a lot of the nerve type of pain but not the aching of the spinal cord compression at the disc.  I took a steroid pack last week.  It really helped, but I still have too much pain.   I am looking for a good doc too. I am 38. I have degenerative disc disease and have had other ruptured discs operated on this year. My surgeon will not operate on thoracic discs unless it is an emergency though.  I live in Indiana.  I know that they do this stuff in FL at the Bonati Institute and at Microspine.  Good luck.
Curious Hound