Videoassisted Thoracoscopic Fixation of Floating Rib Fractures

We examined the results of videoassisted thoracoscopic fixation of floating rib fractures in 16 patients with blunt chest traumas. The method, which was used, was described by K.G. Zhestkov and improved by the authors of this article. Indications for ribs fixation were prolapse of ribs fragments into the pleural cavity with the lung injury (7 patients) and functionally significant abnormal mobility of multiple rib fractures (9 patients). It is shown that the proposed method of videoassisted thoracoscopic ribs fixation at pathological mobility can reliably stabilize the chest wall without wide dissection of injured soft tissue.