Stress fracture of T7 pedicles: report of a rare case

The authors discuss a case of a professional rugby front-row forward who presented with bilateral pedicle stress fractures at T7 and relate the case to the relevant literature. The patient was evaluated with direct radiography, scintigraphy, MRI and high resolution CT with axial, coronal, sagittal and oblique reconstructions. These investigations were conducted over a 12 month period following the onset of mild thoracic pain. Traumatic spinal fracture dislocations with minimal or no cord injury are extremely rare, with only 15 cases reported in the scientific literature to date. The patient's radiological findings were evaluated and compared with the 15 cases of pedicle shear fractures reported by Shapiro et al. in 2002. The presented patient had no specific history of trauma and developed gradual pain from repeated scrummaging. The authors have been unable to find any reported case of bilateral thoracic pedicle fractures that have not resulted from some form of severe injury or iatrogenesis, and believe the following case to be the first reported case of bilateral stress fractures of the thoracic pedicles (T7).