Minimally Invasive Surgical Stabilization of the Rib Cage in the Treatment of Multiple Rib Fractures: Technology, Evaluation of Results (Clinical Observation)

Introduction. The most common type of injury with a closed chest injury is rib fractures, which are observed in 40–92 % of victims. With a closed chest injury, 82 % of patients with multiple rib fractures have a nature of injury complicated by intrapleural injuries. It seems that the optimal method of osteosynthesis for rib fractures should currently be easily and routinely reproducible, low-traumatic, and implants and related equipment inexpensive and affordable.

Materials and methods. A team of authors has developed a method of minimally invasive osteosynthesis, which is used for stable fixation of rib fracture fragments in order to restore the rib cage framework, early restoration of independent breathing, prevention of complications, increasing comfort and quality of life for the patient in the postoperative period, improving the treatment results for patients with chest injuries.

Results and discussion. A clinical case is presented to detail and describe the advantages of the proposed method of surgical stabilization of the rib cage. A 40-year-old patient with multiple complicated thoracic injury was hospitalized for 11 days after surgical treatment, after which he was discharged for outpatient treatment in satisfactory condition. No complications were received during the treatment.

Conclusion. The presented clinical case clearly confirms the effectiveness of surgical stabilization of the chest skeleton in cases of floating and multiple rib fractures, and also demonstrates the successful introduction into clinical practice of minimally invasive retrograde intramedullary temporary fixation of rib fractures, which has advantages such as minimally invasiveness, reproducibility, relatively low resource consumption and cost-effectiveness.

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