Comparison of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and traditional thoracotomy for treatment of multiple rib fractures

Abstract

Objective To compare the therapeutic effect of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and traditional thoracotomy in fixation of traumatic multiple rib fractures.Methods Clinical data of 56 patients with traumatic multiple rib fractures treated surgically between July 2005 and September 2012 were analyzed retrospectively.Based on the treatments,the patients were assigned to video-assisted thoracoscopy group (thoracoscopy group,n =27) and traditional thoracotomy group (thoracotomy group,n =29).A comparison was done on the variables including operation time,intraoperative blood loss,ventilator support rate,duration of mechanical ventilation,length of ICU stay,incidence of lung infections,visual analogue scale (VAS) at day 3 postinjury and mortality between the two groups.Results Operation time [(128.9 ± 21.1) min vs (140.7 ± 24.2) min],ventilator support rate (70％ vs 76％) and mortality (4％ vs 7％) in thoracoscopy group revealed no statistical differences compared with thoracotomy group (P ＞ 0.05),but intraoperative blood loss [(321.1 ± 30.1)ml vs (438.1 ± 43.2)ml],duration of mechanical ventilation [(4.3 ± 2.1) d vs (7.2 ± 1.6) d],length of ICU stay [(5.9 ± 21.1) d vs (8.5 ± 1.7) d],incidence of lung infection (33％ vs 90％),and VAS [(7.0 ± 1.4) points vs (8.3 ± 0.9) points] were significantly reduced in thoracoscopy group than in thoracotomy group (all P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is characterized by fewer intraoperative bleeding,shorter duration of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay,and lower lung infection rate during treatment of traumatic multiple rib fractures compared to traditional thoracotomy. Key words: Rib fractures ; Thoracoscopes ; Fracture fixation, internal