• Jing-Qing Xu, Pei-Li Qiu, Rong-Guo Yu, Shu-Rong Gong, Yong Ye, and Xiu-Ling Shang.
• SICU, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian Medical University Affiliated Provincial Teaching Hospital, Fuzhou, 350001, China. xjq418@163.com.
• Eur. J. Med. Res. 2015 Jan 1; 20: 55.

BackgroundThe objective of the study is to provide evidence for selecting the best treatment approach for severe flail chest by comparing surgical and conservative treatments.MethodsThis is a retrospective study in which 32 patients with severe flail chest were treated in the Fujian Provincial Hospital (China) between July 2007 and July 2012 with surgical internal rib fixation (n = 17) or conservative treatments (n = 15). Mechanical ventilation time, intensive care unit (ICU) stay time, pulmonary infection, antibiotic treatment duration, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) scores 7 and 14 days after trauma, rate of tracheostomy, and rate of endotracheal re-intubation were compared.ResultsOne patient died in the conservative treatment group. Better short-term outcomes were observed in the surgery group, such as total mechanical ventilation time (10.5 ± 3.7 vs. 13.7 ± 4.4 days, P = 0.03), ICU stay (15.9 ± 5.0 vs. 19.6 ± 5.0 days, P = 0.05), pulmonary infection rate (58.8 % vs. 93.3 %, P = 0.02), and APACHE II scores on the 14th day (6.5 ± 3.8 vs. 10.1 ± 4.7, P = 0.02). No difference was observed in the therapeutic time of antibiotics, rate of tracheostomy, and the rate of endotracheal re-intubation between the two groups.ConclusionsResults suggest that internal fixation surgery resulted in better outcomes in the management of severe flail chest compared with conservative treatments.

10 keywords...

hide…