Opinion on the management of stove-in chest appears to be converging on intermittent positive pressure respiration as a definitive line of treatment. Since Barrett (1960) summarised the emergency treatment as comprising tracheo-bronchial clearance, tracheostomy and intercostal drainage of pleural cavities with an underwater-seal, a more positive attitude to the treatment ofthese patients has de...

We present a case of a severe osteoporotic octogenarian who sustained serious flail chest from a traffic accident. The 3rd-9th ribs of the right chest wall were fractured. Non-operative management was unsuccessful. We performed a surgical fixation using a bio-absorbable and bio-active mini-plating set. This plating set is unsintered hydroxyapatite (u-HA) particles/poly-L-lactide (PLLA) composit...

The day of routine single stage thoracoplasties has been brought nearer with the control of shock by using adequate blood replacement and with the control of respiration during operation by a tracheal intubation and the use of curare. Laird and Lindenfield presented a series of 72 single stage thoracophasties in 1950 to the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. These operations were done o...

OBJECTIVE The wisdom of surgery facing multiple and multi-focal ribs fractures (flail segment) remains controversial. By the present retrospective study, we sought to determine the advisability of surgery as well as the anatomical and biomechanical features of flail segment leading to secondary dislocation. METHOD From 1970 to 2000, 127 patients underwent flail segment osteosynthesis. Clinica...

BACKGROUND Although it is rare for the fracture itself to become a life threatening injury in patients suffering from rib fracture, the lives of these patients are occasionally threatened by other associated injuries. Especially, early discovery of patients with rib fracture and intra-abdominal organ injury is extremely important to the prognosis. This study analyzed the link between rib fractu...

Hemangioma of the rib is an uncommon benign vascular tumour. A case of rib hemangioma in a 29-year-old woman is presented. Chest roentgenogram and computed tomography revealed a mass along the inner surface of the 7th left rib with bone destruction. She underwent resection of the 7th rib. The pathologic diagnosis was cavernous hemangioma. Hemangiomas of the rib are rare tumours but should be ke...