title: [Surgical fixation for flail chest].
abstract: Flail chest occurs by blunt chest trauma and is associated with pulmonary contusion, atelectasis, pneumothorax, hemothorax, and respiratory failure. Because of its severity, it may need internal pneumatic stabilization or surgical fixation. Some patients do not need the internal stabilization and are observed conservatively. Some of these patients, however, increase the flail after palliating the pain and getting up. These patients show inefficient ventilation and surgical fixation is needed. The operation should be performed after the improvement of pulmonary contusion. In this paper, we presented 2 patients who showed such course and clarified the surgical methodology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Yokohama Asahi Central and General Hospital, Yokohama, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nonaka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hataya
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hatakeyama
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ooga
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aita
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maezawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morohoshi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamano
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005409:Flail Chest / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods