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The Current Treatment of Flail Chest Injuries

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Injuries to the Chest Wall

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Abstract

The treatment of flail chest injuries includes nonoperative and operative treatment strategies. Nonoperative intervention includes the use of modalities such as mechanical ventilation, internal pneumatic splinting, chest tube insertion, analgesia, and chest physiotherapy, while operative treatment involves surgical fixation of fractured ribs by open reduction and internal fixation. Historically, nonoperative treatment of flail chest injuries has been the gold standard treatment for decades, and rarely was surgical fixation performed. However, recent studies have questioned this notion. Surgical fixation of flail chest injuries has enjoyed increasing popularity recently, in part due to modern studies which suggest improved outcomes with surgical treatment. High-quality, large randomized controlled trials and long-term data in this area are still lacking.

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Abbreviations

CPAP:

Continuous positive airway pressure

K-wire:

Kirschner wire

ICU:

Intensive care unit

ORIF:

Open reduction internal fixation

PEEP:

Positive end-expiratory pressure

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, 55 Queen Street East, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 1R6

    Niloofar Dehghan M.D., F.R.C.S.C.

Authors
  1. Niloofar Dehghan M.D., F.R.C.S.C.
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Correspondence to Niloofar Dehghan M.D., F.R.C.S.C. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Orthopedic Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Michael D. McKee

  2. Division of Orthopedic Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Emil H. Schemitsch

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Dehghan, N. (2015). The Current Treatment of Flail Chest Injuries. In: McKee, M., Schemitsch, E. (eds) Injuries to the Chest Wall. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18624-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18624-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18623-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18624-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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