Table 1.
Demographic and pre-hospital data of patients with rib fractures stratified by subgroups
| Variable | Total patients | Flail chest | Polytrauma (ISS ≥ 16) | Primary thoracic trauma | Elderly (≥ 65 years) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | ||
| n = 14,850 | n = 573 | n = 14,277 | n = 4438 | n = 10,412 | n = 9273 | n = 5577 | n = 6663 | n = 8187 | |
| Demographic data | |||||||||
| Age at trauma, median (IQR) | 62 (49–75) | 62 (51–73) | 62 (49–75) | 59 (46–73) | 63 (51–76) | 62 (51–75) | 61 (47–75) | 77 (70–84) | 51 (42–57) |
| Sex, n (%) | |||||||||
| Male | 10,073 (67.8) | 403 (70.2) | 9.670 (67.7) | 3131 (70.5) | 6942 (66.6) | 6379 (68.8) | 3,694 (66.2) | 3,819 (57.3) | 6254 (76.4) |
| Female | 4777 (32.2) | 171 (29.8) | 4.606 (32.3) | 1307 (29.5) | 3470 (33.3) | 2894 (31.2) | 1,883 (33.8) | 2,844 (42.7) | 1933 (23.6) |
| Comorbidity ASA, n (%)* | |||||||||
| Normal healthy patient | 5027 (33.9) | 190 (33.2) | 4837 (33.9) | 1649 (37.2) | 3378 (32.4) | 3069 (33.1) | 1,958 (35.1) | 882 (13.2) | 4145 (50.6) |
| Mild systemic disease | 5518 (37.2) | 189 (33.0) | 5329 (37.3) | 1527 (34.4) | 3991 (38.3) | 3464 (37.4) | 2,054 (36.8) | 3,329 (50.0) | 2189 (26.7) |
| Moderate systemic disease | 1569 (10.6) | 49 (8.6) | 1520 (10.6) | 429 (9.7) | 1140 (10.9) | 981 (10.6) | 588 (10.5) | 1,193 (17.9) | 376 (4.6) |
| Severe systemic disease | 131 (0.9) | 6 (1.0) | 125 (0.9) | 36 (0.8) | 95 (0.9) | 76 (0.8) | 55 (1.0) | 115 (1.7) | 16 (0.2) |
| Moribund patients | 5 (0) | 0 (0) | 5 (0) | 1 (0) | 4 (0) | 4 (0) | 1 (0) | 4 (0.1) | 1 (0) |
| Pre-hospital data | |||||||||
| Glasgow Coma Scale, median (IQR) | 15 (15–15) | 15 (14–15) | 15 (15–15) | 15 (12–15) | 15 (15–15) | 15 (15–15) | 15 (14–15) | 15 (15–15) | 15 (15–15) |
| Mode of transport, n (%)* | |||||||||
| Ambulance | 10,471 (70.5) | 414 (72.3) | 10,057 (70.4) | 3244 (73.1) | 7227 (69.4) | 6351 (68.5) | 4,120 (73.9) | 4,848 (72.8) | 5623 (68.7) |
| Own transport | 2228 (15.0) | 58 (10.1) | 2170 (15.2) | 185 (4.2) | 2043 (4.2) | 1759 (19.0) | 469 (8.4) | 947 (14.2) | 1281 (15.6) |
| Trauma helicopter | 166 (1.1) | 13 (2.3) | 153 (1.1) | 137 (3.1) | 29 (0.3) | 52 (0.6) | 114 (2.0) | 51 (0.8) | 115 (1.4) |
| Ambulance with helicopter MMT | 862 (5.8) | 60 (10.5) | 802 (5.6) | 690 (15.5) | 172 (1.7) | 305 (3.3) | 557 (10.0) | 259 (3.9) | 603 (7.4) |
| Other | 48 (0.3) | 3 (0.5) | 45 (0.3) | 10 (0.2) | 38 (0.4) | 35 (0.4) | 13 (0.2) | 21 (0.3) | 27 (0.3) |
| Involvement of MMT, n (%) | 1431 (9.6) | 477 (83.2) | 13,058 (91.5) | 1129 (25.4) | 302 (2.9) | 505 (5.4) | 926 (16.6) | 408 (6.1) | 1023 (12.5) |
| Intubation on scene, n (%) | 712 (4.8) | 70 (12.2) | 642 (4.5) | 655 (14.8) | 57 (0.5) | 171 (1.8) | 541 (9.7) | 223 (3.3) | 489 (6.0) |
| Emergency intervention, n (%) | |||||||||
| Thoracotomy/laparotomy | 144 (1.0) | 11 (1.9) | 133 (0.9) | 136 (3.1) | 8 (0.1) | 47 (0.5) | 97 (1.7) | 21 (0.3) | 123 (1.5) |
| Craniotomy | 99 (0.7) | 8 (1.4) | 91 (0.6) | 99 (2.2) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 99 (1.8) | 35 (0.5) | 64 (0.8) |
| Other | 548 (3.7) | 46 (8.0) | 502 (3.5) | 448 (10.1) | 100 (1.0) | 226 (2.4) | 322 (5.8) | 163 (2.4) | 385 (4.7) |
ASA American Society of Anesthesiologists, IQR interquartile range, ISS Injury Severity Score, MMT mobile medical team
* Percentages may not add up to 100 due to missing data