Rib Fixation in Severe Isolated Chest Trauma with Pulmonary Contusion: Rib fixation in pulmonary contusion

Pulmonary contusion (PC) is considered a relative contraindication to surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF). This study compared outcomes in patients undergoing SSRF vs. non-operative management (NOM).

ACS-TQIP 2017-2020 was queried to identify patients with PC and severe chest wall injuries admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Outcomes included mortality, length of stay (LOS), and in-hospital complications. Subgroup analyses stratifying patients according to PC severity and institutional SSRF volume were performed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for confounders.

A total of 17,344 were included; 1789 (10.3 %) underwent SSRF, and 15,555 (89.7 %) did not. SSRF was associated with lower mortality (OR: 0.47, 95 % CI: 0.33-0.68, p < 0.001) but increased ventilator-associated pneumonia, tracheostomy, unplanned ICU admissions, and intubations. It was also associated with increased hospital LOS by 3.46 days (95 % CI: 2.94-3.98) and ICU LOS by 2.33 days (95 % CI: 1.99-2.68). Institutional volume above the median level of 7 SSRF cases was associated with reduced ventilator days by 1.3 days (95 % CI:2.54 to -0.05), hospital LOS by 1.7 days (95 % CI:2.58 to -0.82), and ICU LOS by 1.4 days (95 % CI:2.11 to -0.64), with no significant effects on other outcomes.

In patients with severe chest wall injury and PC, SSRF is associated with lower mortality at the expense of longer LOS.