Injury Patterns and Surgical Approaches

Effective management of bony and cartilaginous thoracic injury is a vital part of the care of the polytraumatized patient. Commonly because of high-energy accidents including motor vehicle collisions and falls, these patients routinely require multidisciplinary care and surgical intervention. As our understanding of unstable chest wall injuries and pulmonary sequelae of the injury grows, it is imperative that injury patterns and surgical approaches become familiar to the orthopaedic trauma-trained surgeon. Common rib fracture patterns and muscle-sparing surgical approaches are detailed, with the goal of restoring chest wall stability to improve the mechanics of respiration and pain control in these challenging patients.