Table 2.
Fracture- and injury-related characteristics 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 | |
| Number of fractured ribs, n (%) | |||||||||
| 1 | 2662 (17.9) | N/A | 2654 (18.6) | 371 (8.4) | 2291 (22.0) | 888 (9.6) | 1774 (31.8) | 1153 (17.3) | 1509 (18.4) |
| 2 | 2627 (17.7) | N/A | 2514 (18.3) | 430 (9.7) | 2197 (21.1) | 1374 (14.8) | 1253 (22.5) | 1209 (18.1) | 1418 (17.3) |
| ≥ 3 | 9561 (64.4) | 573 (100) | 9009 (63.1) | 4438 (81.9) | 5924 (56.8) | 7011 (75.6) | 2550 (45.7) | 4301 (64.6) | 5260 (64.3) |
| Flail chest, n (%) | |||||||||
| Yes | 573 (3.9) | 573 (100) | 0 (0) | 312 (7.0) | 261 (2.5) | 416 (4.5) | 157 (2.8) | 259 (3.9) | 314 (3.8) |
| No | 14,277 (96.1) | 0 (0) | 14,277 (100) | 4261 (93.0) | 10,151 (97.5) | 8857 (95.5) | 5420 (97.2) | 6404 (96.1) | 7873 (96.2) |
| ISS, median (IQR) | 12 (9–17) | 17 (10–27) | 11 (9–17) | 22 (17–29) | 9 (8–13) | 10 (9–14) | 18 (9–27) | 10 (9–17) | 13 (9–18) |
| Polytrauma (ISS ≥ 16), n (%) | |||||||||
| Yes | 4438 (29.9) | 312 (54.5) | 4216 (28.9) | 4438 (100) | 0 (0) | 1642 (17.7) | 2796 (50.1) | 1787 (26.8) | 2651 (32.4) |
| No | 10,412 (70.1) | 261 (45.5) | 10,151 (71.1) | 0 (0) | 10,412 (100) | 7631 (82.3) | 2781 (49.9) | 4876 (73.2) | 5536 (67.6) |
| AIS, median (IQR) | |||||||||
| Head | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–1) | 1 (0–3) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 1 (1–3) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) |
| Face | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) |
| Thorax | 3 (2–3) | 3 (3–3) | 3 (2–3) | 3 (3–4) | 3 (2–3) | 3 (2–3) | 2 (2–3) | 3 (2–3) | 3 (2–3) |
| Abdomen | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) |
| Spine | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) |
| Extremities | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–2) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) |
AIS Abbreviated Injury Scale, IQR interquartile range, ISS Injury Severity Score, N/A not applicable