Authors
Silvana F Marasco, Andrew R Davies, Jamie Cooper, Dinesh Varma, Victoria Bennett, Rachael Nevill, Geraldine Lee, Michael Bailey, Mark Fitzgerald
Publication date
2013/5/1
Journal
Journal of the American College of Surgeons
Volume
216
Issue
5
Pages
924-932
Publisher
No longer published by Elsevier
Description
BACKGROUND
Traumatic flail chest injury is a potentially life threatening condition traditionally treated with invasive mechanical ventilation to splint the chest wall. Longer-term sequelae of pain, deformity, and physical restriction are well described. This study investigated the impact of operative fixation in these patients.
STUDY DESIGN
A prospective randomized study compared operative fixation of fractured ribs in the flail segment with current best practice mechanical ventilator management. In-hospital data, 3-month follow-up review, spirometry and CT, and 6-month quality of life (Short Form-36) questionnaire were collected.
RESULTS
Patients in the operative fixation group had significantly shorter ICU stay (hours) postrandomization (285 hours [range 191 to 319 hours] for the surgical group vs 359 hours [range 270 to 581 hours] for the conservative group; p = 0.03) and lesser requirement for noninvasive …
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Scholar articles
SF Marasco, AR Davies, J Cooper, D Varma, V Bennett… - Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 2013