Surgical planning and fixation
Fractures, fractures, trauma
There are two orthopedic trauma surgeons in three centers with a special interest in this field who perform surgical fixation of rib fractures. Before enrolling patients, all surgeons at different hospitals were professionally trained. Fractures in the third to tenth ribs were deemed suitable for fixation. One of the 3 standard surgical approaches was used for access to rib fractures chosen for fixation: lateral thoracotomy, a posterior paramedian approach, and an inframammary approach [