2012 OTA Annual Meeting: Critical Care Benefits of Rib Fracture Fixation: A Meta-Analysis

11 manuscripts (753 patients) were identified that assessed the results of surgical fixation and nonsurgical management for flail chest injuries. The results of this meta-analysis indicate that surgical fixation of flail chest injuries results in better critical care benefits including a decrease in ventilator days, and reduced odds of developing pneumonia when compared to nonsurgical management. The results also indicate that surgical fixation also reduced the number of days in ICU, mortality, septicemia, tracheostomy, and chest deformity.