Cartilage Plating in Flail Chest Fixation

Operative stabilization of flail chest has been shown to have several benefits over nonoperative management. Often, flail chest injuries will involve the anterior ribs and their associated costal cartilage. In certain cases, operative fixation with open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of anterior rib fractures involving the costal cartilage may be warranted. Currently, there is scant literature regarding the surgical approach and clinical outcomes of ORIF involving the costal cartilage. The purpose of this study is to describe the surgical approach and first reported clinical series for patients undergoing anterior rib ORIF involving the costal cartilage.

After Institutional Review Board approval was obtained, a retrospective case series was performed at a single urban level 1 trauma center including patients 18 years of age or older who underwent ORIF of anterior rib fractures involving the costal cartilage. All surgical approaches were performed with muscle-sparing techniques. Patients were followed during their hospitalization period and postoperatively as routinely scheduled. Data collection including patient demographics, injury characteristics, operative variables, and postoperative outcomes were collected and analyzed.

Thirty patients, with a mean age of 54.4 years, were included in this study. All patients had a flail chest injury and were treated with ORIF on average 4.1 days following injury. There were no intraoperative complications reported. Total hospital length of stay averaged 22.8 days with an intensive care unit stay averaging 6.1 days; total ventilator time averaged 5.2 days. Six patients were diagnosed with postoperative pneumonia and no postoperative superficial infections, deep infections, or seromas were noted. Eight patients required tracheostomy postoperatively. Only 1 patient had evidence of radiographic malunion, and a separate patient had evidence of screw loosening; no patients required or requested implant removal. Union rate was 100% and one-year mortality was 0%.

Open reduction and internal fixation of anterior rib fractures involving the costal cartilage is a safe procedure with low complication rates and favorable postoperative outcomes including hospital length of stay, intensive care unit length of stay, postoperative pneumonia, need for tracheostomy, and mechanical ventilation time.