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A rib fracture is a break in a rib bone. [1] This typically results in chest pain that is worse with inspiration. [1] Bruising may occur at the site of the break. [3] When several ribs are broken in several places a flail chest results. [4] Potential complications include a pneumothorax, pulmonary contusion, and pneumonia. [2] [1]
Flail chest typically occurs when three or more adjacent ribs are fractured in two or more places, allowing that segment of the thoracic wall to displace and move independently of the rest of the chest wall. Flail chest can also occur when ribs are fractured proximally in conjunction with disarticulation of costal cartilages distally. For the ...
Symptoms can worsen quickly and be lethal, especially in the case of severe bleeding, bruised heart, or strangulation of herniated intestine. It is also possible that there may only be subtle signs, and the condition is only incidentally detected months to years after the injury during a medical scan.
Pulmonary laceration is a common result of penetrating trauma but may also be caused by blunt trauma; broken ribs may perforate the lung, or the tissue may be torn due to shearing forces [5] that result from different rates of acceleration or deceleration of different tissues of the lung. [6]
An x-ray revealed the child had “several fractured ribs in different stages of healing and multiple bruises throughout the victim’s torso, consistent with child neglect and/or child abuse.”
Management is a mixture of medical (eg pain relief, respiratory support, chest drainage and antibiotics), non-medical (physiotherapy and rehabilitation) and surgical (fixation of rib fractures if appropriate and operative treatment of cardiac, lung, airway, diaphragm and oesophageal injuries).