Fixation of Rib Fractures

SavageGlow · #1 ● 02-14-2023, 02:20 AM

Fixation of rib fractures in a 19-year-old patient after an accident (she was hit by a car).

Bastet · #2 ● 02-14-2023, 09:44 AM

I'm never going to eat another T-bone steak again

The "chains" look kinda cool though.

ride · #3 ● 02-14-2023, 12:57 PM

Wait a minute - never heard of fixating any rib bones. I’ve broken a total of ten (three separate incidents) including a punctured lung, and I was not given an option for anything of the sort, even though my left side ribs looked like a Donkey Kong screen. This has to be a country with less than optimal medical care, or her shit was massively fucked up. Judging by the look of her repair though, I think even if given an option, I would have passed on the wire anyway.

SavageGlow · #4 ● 02-14-2023, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by ride ↗

Wait a minute - never heard of fixating any rib bones. I’ve broken a total of ten (three separate incidents) including a punctured lung, and I was not given an option for anything of the sort, even though my left side ribs looked like a Donkey Kong screen. This has to be a country with less than optimal medical care, or her shit was massively fucked up. Judging by the look of her repair though, I think even if given an option, I would have passed on the wire anyway.

I found it on a Russian site so my guess is the same. Although, I've never checked in to what they do for major fractures anyways.

Norag · #5 ● 02-16-2023, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by ride ↗

Wait a minute - never heard of fixating any rib bones. I’ve broken a total of ten (three separate incidents) including a punctured lung, and I was not given an option for anything of the sort, even though my left side ribs looked like a Donkey Kong screen. This has to be a country with less than optimal medical care, or her shit was massively fucked up. Judging by the look of her repair though, I think even if given an option, I would have passed on the wire anyway.

Abstract on the topic below. I'll upload the full paper:

Rib fractures are among the most common traumatic injury found in ∼20% of all patients who suffer thoracic trauma. The majority of these are a result of a blunt mechanism and are often associated with other traumatic injuries. The most common associated injury is lung contusion. Rib fractures impart an increased morbidity and mortality with the highest mortality associated with a flail chest in the elderly population. Flail chest is defined radiographically as 3 or more consecutive ribs fractured in 2 or more places. This often translates to a clinical flail which is associated with paradoxical chest wall movement during respiratory cycles. The mainstay of treatment has been pain control and respiratory support with positive pressure ventilation. However, over the past 2 decades, there has been mounting evidence to suggest that open reduction and internal fixation of ribs benefits patients. The indications remain confined to the most severely injured patients with flail chest or chronic non-unions; however, there remains debate whether or not less severely injured patients would benefit as well.