ReviewJournal of thoracic disease2021
What is the optimal timing to perform surgical stabilization of rib fractures?
Review in Journal of thoracic disease, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed.
- Surgical stabilization of rib fractures in a high-altitude trauma cohort: in-hospital clinical outcomes and resource use in a propensity score-weighted retrospective cohort study.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2026Article
- Delayed life-threatening aortic rupture after rib fractures: a case report.Journal of cardiothoracic surgery · 2026Article
- Outcomes of anterior versus posterior rib fractures and surgical treatment: analysis of 249 patients.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2026Article
- Article
- A study on the optimal timing for Rib fracture surgery: A report from a single center is earlier surgery always better?Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2026Article
- The impact of injury severity and age on short-and long-term mortality and hospital length of stay after surgical stabilisation of rib fractures (SSRF): a German population-based propensity-score matched investigation.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2026Article
- Spontaneous reduction of type I traumatic manubriosternal joint dislocation: A case report.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures in Geriatric Trauma Patients: A National Trauma Data Bank Review.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- "Anchor-type" incision for surgical stabilization of anterior rib fractures: a single center experience and evaluation.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2026Article
- AnFrontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Surgical treatment of rib fractures more than one month after injury: a single-center experience.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Research on the correlation between rib fracture characteristics and the risk of intrathoracic and intra-abdominal injuries.Chinese journal of traumatology = Zhonghua chuang shang za zhi · 2025Observational
- RibMR - A Mixed Reality Visualization System for Rib Fracture Localization in Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures: Phantom, Preclinical, and Clinical Studies.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2025Article
- Surgical stabilisation of rib fractures in non-ventilated patients: a retrospective propensity-matched analysis using the data from the trauma registry of the German Trauma Society (TraumaRegister DGUEuropean journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2025Observational
- The Earlier the Better: Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures Associated With Improved Outcomes.The Journal of surgical research · 2024Article
- Age-Neutral Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures: Breaking the Ageism Barrier.The Journal of surgical research · 2024Article
- Treatment of traumatic rib fractures: an overview of current evidence and future perspectives.Journal of thoracic disease · 2024Review
- Commentary: Optimal Timing for Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures: When Is Best?Journal of chest surgery · 2024Article
- [Treatment strategy for severe implosion injuries of the lateral chest wall].Unfallchirurgie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- Chest wall injury fracture patterns are associated with different mechanisms of injury: a retrospective review study in the United States.Journal of trauma and injury · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The practice of surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) for severe chest wall injury has exponentially increased over the last decade due to improved outcomes as compared to nonoperative management. However, regarding in-hospital outcomes, the ideal time from injury to SSRF remains a matter of debate. This review aims to evaluate and summarize currently available literature related to timing of SSRF. Nine studies on the effect of time to SSRF were identified. All were retrospective comparative studies with no detailed information on why patients underwent early or later SSRF. Patients underwent SSRF most often for a flail chest or ≥3 displaced rib fractures. Early SSRF (≤48-72 hours after admission) was associated with shorter hospital and intensive care unit length of stay (HLOS and ICU-LOS, respectively), duration of mechanical ventilation (DMV), and lower rates of pneumonia, and tracheostomy as well as lower hospitalization costs. No difference between early or late SSRF was demonstrated for mortality rate. As compared to nonoperative management, late SSRF (>3 days after admission), was associated with similar or worse in-hospital outcomes. The optimal time to perform SSRF in patients with severe chest wall injury is early (≤48-72 hours after admission) and associated with improved in-hospital outcomes as compared to either late salvage or nonoperative management. These data must however be cautiously interpreted due the retrospective nature of the studies and potential selection and attrition bias. Future research should focus on both factors and pathways that allow patients to undergo early SSRF.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.