Methods of management of flail chest

We have treated 30 patients with flail chest, with priority given to associated factors (pain, secretions retention, hemo-/pneumothorax and underlying pulmonary contusion). When this treatment was insufficient IMV+PEEP was instituted; in this group there was a 58.8% incidence of pneumonia, 47.5% of sepsis and 11.7 days average stay in the ICU. These were significantly different when compared to the patients controlled without mechanical ventilatory support (7.7% pneumonia, 0% sepsis, 3.2 days).Surgical fixation was limited to 4 patients who presented with multiple and greatly displaced rib fractures, which made fixation by mechanical ventilation unpredictable.