Laterality of Air Volume in the Lungs Long After Blunt Chest Trauma

Prognostic factors in flail-chest patients☆

“…The authors believe that such an operation could be meaningless, if it is done in order to improve lung air-volume reduction, since that is caused by the lung contusion and not by the thoracic deformity [21]. In another series [22][23][24], the authors found it reasonable to use operative fixation only in cases where thoracotomy was required for another indication, and so did these authors.…”

Operative Chest Wall Fixation with Osteosynthesis Plates

“…In CT measurements 1-6 years after trauma the hemithoracic space was significantly smaller on the former flail side. 21 After surgical stabilization of flail chest injury, 95-100% returned to full preoperative work capacity. 3,28 In a different study, 11% of patients with surgical stabilization complained of persistent postoperative pain after 6 months (compared with 49% of patients with persistent thoracic cage pain without operation reported by Landercasper et al, 10 half of which improved after plate removal 3 ).…”