BACKGROUND We analyzed the results of surgical reduction and fixation of ribs under thoracic epidural anesthesia and analgesia (TEA) in patients who had no more than 3 consecutive rib fractures with severe displacement to examine the clinical usefulness of this method. MATERIALS AND METHODS From May 2008 to March 2010, 35 patients underwent surgical reduction and fixation of ribs under TEA. W...

We developed a method for suppression of the contrast of ribs in chest radiographs by means of a massive training artificial neural network (MTANN). The MTANN is a trainable highly nonlinear filter that can be trained by using input chest radiographs and the corresponding teacher images. We used either the soft-tissue image or the bone image obtained by use of a dual-energy subtraction techniqu...

Introduction: Cervical rib is relatively uncommon congenital abnormality that originates from the seventh cervical vertebrae and rarely from the sixth vertebrae. The purpose of this paper is to consider that this abnormal condition is an important cause of neurovascular compression at the thoracic outlet. Methods: In this study all patients who were referred to radiology departm...

121 COVER Skeletons of turtle, chicken, and mouse. The turtle body plan is unusual in that the ribs are transformed into a carapace, and the scapula, situated outside the ribs in other animals, is found inside the carapace. A report on page 193 explains the evolutionary origin of this inside-out skeletal morphology.

The present photocase illustrates the possible mechanism of direct cardiac injuries from broken sharp jagged fractured ends of ribs in blunt force trauma to the chest in run over traffic mishaps. We propose that the projecting fractured ends of the ribs penetrate the underlying thoracic organs due to the transient phenomenon of deformation of chest cavity under pressure in run over traffic mish...