Background:

Flail chest is managed with mechanical ventilation or inhaloteraphy and analgesia. Little has been published on the use of bioabsorbable material and its evolution in flail chest fixation.

Methods:

This is a descriptive study of patients with unstable chest undergoing fixation with bioabsorbable plates and screws in a period from February 2009 to December 2011.

Results:

We report 18 cases, aged 33-74 years (mean 53), three with bilateral involvement; rib fixation was performed between 1-21 days of the accident (mean 1.5). They started walking the next day in 14 cases; postoperative stay was four days (range 3-14). The heart rate of patients prior to surgery was 90 per minute (range 82-100) and lowered to 84 after fixation (range 82-92), preoperative respiratory rate was 26 per minute (range 22-28) and below 22 per minute (range 20 to 26) in postoperative period.

Conclusions:

The use of bioabsorbable material for osteosynthesis of costal fractures did not show side effects in our period of study.