Rib fractures after blunt thoracic trauma in patients with normal versus diminished bone mineral density: a retrospective cohort study

This study aimed to evaluate rib fracture rate as well as rib fracture characteristics after thoracic trauma in patients with normal versus diminished bone mineral density (BMD). A retrospective cohort study of persons aged 50 years or older presenting to the Emergency Department after sustaining blunt thoracic trauma between July 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017, was performed. Patient and trauma characteristics and DXA scan results were collected. Rib fracture rate and characteristics were evaluated on a radiograph and/or CT scan of the thorax. In total, 119 patients were included for analysis. Fifty-eight of them (49%) had a diminished BMD. In the remaining 61, the BMD was normal. The diminished BMD group experienced rib fractures more often than the normal BMD group (n = 43 (74%) versus n = 31 (51%); p = 0.014). Patients with diminished BMD suffered low-energy trauma more frequently than the normal BMD group (21 (36%) versus 11 patients (15%), respectively (p = 0.011)). Rib fracture characteristics such as the median number of rib fractures, concomitant intrathoracic injury rate, and rib fracture type distribution were not different between the groups. The rate of rib fractures after blunt thoracic trauma was significantly higher in patients with diminished BMD than in patients with a normal BMD. Differences in number and location of rib fractures between groups could not be proven. When assessing patients aged 50 years or older presenting to the hospital after substantial blunt thoracic trauma, the presence of diminished BMD should be taken into account and the presence of rib fractures should be investigated with appropriate diagnostic procedures. Diminished bone mineral density (i.e., osteopenia or osteoporosis) is associated with increased fracture risk. This study evaluated if diminished BMD increases the rib fracture risk. Patients with diminished BMD have a higher risk of sustaining rib fractures after substantial blunt thoracic trauma, which implicates a lower threshold for CT imaging of the chest

Operative versus nonoperative treatment of multiple simple rib fractures: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: Surgical rib stabilization in flail chest is proven to be beneficial over nonoperative treatment in terms of rate of pneumonia, Intensive Care (IC) length of stay (ICLOS) and mechanical ventilation days. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of operative versus nonoperative treatment on the occurrence of pneumonia and other relevant clinical outcomes in patients with multiple simple rib fractures. Methods: A search was performed in Embase, Medline Ovid, Cochrane Central, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The primary outcome was the occurrence of pneumonia. Secondary outcomes were duration of mechanical ventillation, ICLOS, hospital length of stay (HLOS), mortality, and wound infections. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots for the outcome measures and random-effect models were used when heterogeneity of data on outcome measures was significant (I2≥40%). Results: The search resulted in 592 unique records, of which 14 studies on 13 cohorts were included. The 14 studies comprised five prospective and nine retrospective cohort studies with a cumulative total of 4565 patients. Meta-analysis showed a significant decrease of the occurrence of pneumonia (n=2659 patients; relative risk, RR=0.66; 95% confidential interval [CI] 0.49 to 0.90; p=0.008) and mortality (n=4456 patients; RR=0.32; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.54; p<0.001) in favor of operative treatment. No effect of operative treatment was found for the duration of mechanical ventilation (n=113 patients; SMD=-0.37 day; 95% CI -1.31 to 0.57; p=0.44), ICLOS (n=524 patients; SMD=−0.29 days; 95% CI −0.82 to 0.24; p=0.29), and HLOS (n=648 patients; SMD=−0.78 days; 95% CI −1.83 to 0.27; p=0.14). The postoperative wound infection rate ranged from 0 to 9.4%. Conclusion: Surgical treatment of multiple simple rib fractures may result in a significant reduction of pneumonia and mortality. A reducing effect of treatment on the duration of mechanical ventilation, IC length of stay, and hospital length of stay was not demonstrated. However, due to nonstandard or absent definitions of outcome measures as well as heterogenous patient groups and the observational design of studies, results must be interpreted with caution and high-quality studies are needed

Early fixation versus conservative therapy of multiple, simple rib fractures (FixCon): protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background: Multiple rib fractures are common injuries in both the young and elderly. Rib fractures account for 10% of all trauma admissions and are seen in up to 39% of patients after thoracic trauma. With morbidity and mortality rates increasing with the number of rib fractures as well as poor quality of life at long-term follow-up, multiple rib fractures pose a serious health hazard. Operative fixation of flail chest is beneficial over nonoperative treatment regarding, among others, pneumonia and both intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay. With no high-quality evidence on the effects of multiple simple rib fracture treatment, the optimal treatment modality remains unknown. This study sets out to investigate outcome of operative fixation versus nonoperative treatment of multiple simple rib fractures. Methods: The proposed study is a multicenter randomized controlled trial. Patients will be eligible if they have three or more multiple simple rib fractures of which at least one is disl