Table 1.

Studies dealing with additional thoracic injuries

References	Purpose	Study design	N	FU (months)	Main message	Ev-L
Huang et al. [5]	Analysis of middle and upper thoracic fractures associated with sternal fractures	Retrospective case series	26	8–99	Middle and upper thoracic spine fractures with associated sternal fractures are caused by high-energy injuries and have a high rate of unstable fracture pattern	IV
Krinner et al. [8]	Anterior sternal plating in patients with unstable vertebral spine fractures and associated sterna fractures	Retrospective case series	11	24	Sternal plating with low profile plates was associated without any complications with complete consolidation after 3 months in all cases	IV
Lemburg et al. [9]	Impact of CT findings of the chest wall, mediastinum, lungs, and pleural space on the mortality	Retrospective case series	33	Hospital stay	Survivers had a significant lower lung contusion scores Chest wall bruises, rib fractures, mediastinal hematoma, and bilateral pneumothoraces was assiocated with higher mortality rates	IV
Scheyerer et al. [16]	Impact of sternal fracture location on concomitant injuries	Retrospective case series	58	None	Fractures of the manubrium sterni had the highest rate of concomitant injuries Sternal fractures are associated with serios injuries of the chest wall, thoracic spine factures, and brain injuries	IV
Wang et al. [22]	Clinical characteristics of patients with vertebral spine fractures and concomitant fractures of the ribs	Retrospective cohort study	226	Hospital stay	Patients with thoracic vertebral body fractures had a higher frequency of multiple rib fractures Increased number of rib fractures was associated with prolonged intensive care stay and increased frequency of pulmonary complications	IV
Morgenstern et al. [12]	Correlation between sternal fractures and unstable thoracic spine injuries	Retrospective cohort study	64	None	A thoracic cage injury was significantly more frequently associated with a highly unstable thoracic spine injury	IV