Comparison of two pediatric flail chest cases

Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

Shinji Ogura¹  Izumi Toyoda¹  Hiroaki Ushikoshi¹  Keisuke Kumada¹  Takahiro Yoshida¹  Hisaaki Kato¹  Sho Nachi¹  Shiho Nakano¹  Taku Tanaka¹  Yuichiro Kitagawa¹  Kodai Suzuki¹  Haruka Ikeshoji¹  Soichiro Nagaya¹  Shozo Yoshida¹  Kunihiro Shirai¹  Hideshi Okada¹  Ryu Yasuda¹ 

[1] Department of Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1194, Japan

关键词: Flail chest;    Pediatric trauma;   

Others  :  1227792
DOI  :  10.1186/s13049-015-0156-5

 received in 2015-07-03, accepted in 2015-09-17,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Flail chest is a rare complication in pediatric patients with blunt chest trauma. There is no general consensus on which treatment is most appropriate for flail chest in pediatric patients, although it has been reported that surgical fixation is associated with beneficial outcomes for flail chest in adults.

The present report described two pediatric cases of flail chest, which was rare in pediatric blunt trauma. In small children, functional residual capacity is smaller, and the thorax is pliable due to high thoracic compliance. Therefore, it is only advisable to select intubation and mechanical ventilation treatment. Likewise, in pediatric flail chest, the available evidence does not suggest that ventilator management protocols should be adopted routinely, and the treatment for pediatric flail chest was not established completely.

There were not huge different between the described patients, including injury severity and ventilation setting. However, one had a relapse of flail chest after extubation and chest taping was required, while the other patient’s condition was stable after decannulation.

As described above, it is difficult to predict a recurrence of flail chest in pediatric patients even if treatment goes well. Therefore, T-piece trial should be considered prior to extubation.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Yasuda et al.

【 图 表 】

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