Varghese: The good thing is 85 percent of rib fractures heal on their own, and what we're really looking at is the alignment. When might you look at that fracture and say, "You know, it's not really going to heal without me going in there and repairing the rib?"ĭr. Miller: So a patient falls and is injured in a sports event, a sporting event. Is the injury only in the ribs or is there associated nerve damage? Is there associated muscle damage or other bones affected? Because really, we can't just isolate and just treat the ribs without considering other damage that's occurred as a result of the injury.ĭr. It's one of the things that we have to really talk to patients about and try to differentiate it out. They occur in conjunction with other types of injury. Oftentimes rib fractures don't occur in isolation. One of the things that we really go down to get the detail about is the mechanism of the injury. Tom, tell us a little bit about when patients come to you for rib fractures and is there a surgical treatment for that? Obviously, you can't cast a fractured rib, so when can you surgically intervene on a fractured rib?ĭr. He's a thoracic surgeon and works in the Department of Surgery here at the University of Utah. We're going to talk about that next on Scope Radio.Īnnouncer: Access to our experts with in-depth information about the biggest health issues facing you today. ![]() ![]() Miller: Surgical interventions for rib fractures.
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