The Usefulness of Early Surgical Rib Stabilization in Flail Chest

Abstract

Background : Flail chest is a clinical condition observed in patients with blunt thorax trauma. Surgical stabilization methods performed on selected patients shorten the durations of mechanical ventilation and intensive care monitoring and significantly reduce the rates of ventilator-associated morbidity and mortality. Material and Method : Patients treated and diagnosed with flail chest between 2009 and 2014 were studied retrospectively. Results : There were two groups : 10 patients in the group treated surgically and 10 patients in the group treated nonsurgically. The groups were similar in terms of age, ISS score, degree of pulmonary contusion, number of rib fractures and location of flail chest. There were no significant differences between the stabilization and non-surgical therapy groups in hospitalization and mechanical ventilation period, tracheostomies, hospital costs and mortality. However, there were significant differences in the intensive care period. The number of the patients who developed pneumonia was significantly lower in the stabilization group, and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion : Early surgical rib stabilization in flail chest is a safe treatment method which has a low complication rate and can reduce the morbidity and mortality which develop from mechanical ventilation.