Table 2.

Surgery-related characteristics and in-hospital complications

Variables	Multiple rib fracture	Flail chest
	n = 28	n = 37
Duration until rib fixation in days (median, IQR)	1 (1–2)	1 (1–2)
Duration of surgery in minutes (mean ± SD)	130 (83)	148 (64)
Number of surgically-fixated rib fractures (median, IQR)	4 (3–5)	5 (4–6)
Ratio surgically-fixated ribs and total number of rib fractures	0.54	0.50
In-hospital complications after surgical rib fixation (n, %)
Pneumothorax	0 (0)	2 (5.4)
Tension pneumothorax	1 (3.6)	0 (0)
Pleural empyema	0 (0)	2 (5.4)
Excess pleural fluid	1 (3.6)	0 (0)
Infection of osteosynthesis material	1 (3.6)	0 (0)
Hematoma	0 (0)	1 (2.7)
Hemothorax	0 (0)	1 (2.7)