What is the Thoracic Spine?
We always hear about lower back pain, but it’s rarely mentioned on TV spots or magazine ads about middle back pain, known to the professionals as thoracic back pain. The thoracic area is the part of the spine that starts just below your cervical spine (neck) and connects with your lumbar spine (lower back.) That’s a pretty big section of vertebrae, discs, ligaments, nerves, and tissue that can sustain injury or ailment. Let’s talk about that.
Middle back pain can be due to trauma brought on by an accident or the result of an internal disorder. Since there are several triggers or causes for the pain, we’ll provide a quick list of the most common.
Causes of Thoracic Back Pain
Below are the most common triggers for lower (and upper) back pain.
- Herniated discs
- Accident trauma
- Myofascial pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Pinched nerves
- Degenerative disc disease
- Stress-related disorders
- Scoliosis
- Cancer
Managing the Middle Back Pain
While most cases of thoracic back pain may resolve within a few weeks, the prognosis of thoracic back pain greatly depends on the underling cause and specific circumstances of your case, as well as, the method of treatment used.
Some pain relief procedures we provide here at Physician Partners of America are:
- Facet denervation. Radiofrequency facet denervation (RFD) is a minimally-invasive surgical procedure used to treat central neck or back pain due to arthritis or injury to the facet joints.
- Nerve blocks. A nerve block is an anesthetic or anti-inflammatory injection into a particular nerve or group of nerves for pain relief. The aim is to block pain signal(s) coming from a specific location in the body and/or decrease inflammation in that area.
- Facet joint injections. A facet joint injection is a fairly straightforward procedure performed by using an x-ray to guide and place the needle while avoiding potential nearby nerve harm or injury.
- Spinal cord stimulator. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is the standard treatment for patients suffering from chronic pain in their back, neck or limbs who did not achieve pain relief through other various methods.
Of course, this is just a small selection of pain management treatments we offer. For the full selection, click here.
Don’t let middle back pain take control of your life. Our pain specialists are standing by to help. Contact us or schedule an appointment to stop by.
