Rib Fixation

Surgical treatment of broken ribs uses titanium plates to stabilize fractured ribs while they heal and hold the ribs in their correct anatomic location.

Fractured ribs, also referred to as broken or cracked ribs, are common in blunt chest wall trauma and active lifestyle injuries from cycling to football. The fractured ribs usually heal on their own without specific treatment, but a subset of patients have fractures that produce overlaying bone fragments that may produce symptoms like severe rib pain, respiratory compromise, chest wall deformity, and/or a clicking sensation. The pain/rib soreness with rib fractures can make coughing and sleeping uncomfortable and difficult.

Broken Rib Treatment
Most of the fractured ribs are treated with conservative non-operative care. These include aggressive pain management (epidural analgesia, oral analgesics and/or bracing techniques), and in more serious cases, ventilation and tracheotomy¹ until fibrous stabilization (partial bone healing) is achieved.

More severe chest wall trauma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in the presence of a flail chest, defined as fracture of at least three consecutive ribs in at least two locations each, where paradoxical inward movement of the flail segment in inspiration is found. Patients with flail chest often require aggressive pain control, ventilation and prolonged ICU stay.¹

About 10% of chest wall trauma cases result in a flail chest.⁴ Flail chest injuries, are associated with a mortality rate of up to 36%.^{4 5} Flail chest injuries develop paradoxical inward movement of the flail segment which prevents effective inspiration and require prolonged mechanical ventilation which can lead to pneumonia and sepsis.⁴

The need to improve rib fracture treatment has been recognized for many years and some surgeons have been using operative approaches including plates, intramedullary devices, vertical bridging, wire, sutures, and struts to repair the chest wall.^{2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10} These attempts indicate a trend in better rib fracture treatment to improve pain control, reduce duration of mechanical ventilation, reduce ICU stays, and ultimately improve patient care.

DePuy Synthes CMF markets MatrixRIB™ Fixation System, a surgical system to treat rib fractures.