Axial gout is a rare condition and the involvement of the thoracic spine has been described only 17 times in the literature. This paper presents the case of a 48 year-old male patient with a history of gout, under irregular treatment with allopurinol and colchicines, who developed acute paraplegia resulting from spinal cord compression by tophaceous gout. The diagnosis was made using magnetic resonance imaging and anatomic pathology. The patient was treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and surgical decompression and showed important, albeit partial, improvement. Thus, although tophi rarely affect the spinal cord, they should be considered as a possibility in cases of spinal cord compression syndrome in patients with a history of gout
gout; tophi; thoracic spine; paraplegia
