A 91-year-old woman presented to our emergency room with a complaint of left-sided chest pain and difficulty walking after a backward fall. After admission, the cause remained unidentified. She described the painful area by rubbing back and forth around the left costal region, but no tenderness was observed. The fall was the trigger, and she complained of banded pain at the 7th to 8th thoracic vertebral level on dermatome, suggesting a nerve root symptom. A fracture of the eighth thoracic vertebra was found on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A paraspinal nerve block was performed and her pain improved. She is now able to walk. Thoracic vertebral body fractures rarely cause left-sided chest pain. Clinical reasoning based on careful history-taking and physical examination is important for diagnosis. If the diagnosis cannot be made using radiography or computed tomography, MRI should be considered.
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