Analysis of the Status, Treatment and Outcomes of Rib Fractures

This is a retrospective chart review with follow-up phone calls.

The initial part of the study will be a retrospective chart review. For this chart review study, the following data elements will be entered for each participant.

The investigators will perform a retrospective study of patients who have been treated for rib fractures at Penn State Hershey Medical Center (PSHMC). The time period of review will be 1/10/10 - 1/10/12 until 1500 cases have been reviewed. Data collected will be:

• Patient Medical Record Number (MRN)
• Name
• Phone number
• length of stay (admit and discharge date)
• Number of rib fractures per patient
• Cause of rib fracture
• Characteristics of the fracture (unilateral versus bilateral and multiple versus single)
• Pain management used for the rib fracture including pain interventions, medications and all pain scores
• Complications attributable to the rib fracture, including:

• Shortness of Breath (SOB)
• Hemothorax,
• Pneumothorax
• Flail chest
• Intubation required
• Mechanical ventilation required
• Opioids required for pain
• Chest tube placement required
• Sequelae of rib fracture, including:

• Acute Respiratory Deficiency Syndrome (ARDS)
• Pneumonia
• Death
• chronic pain
• delayed subclavian vessel thrombosis
• aortic aneurysm
• tracheobronchial fistula
• thoracic outlet syndrome
• Horner's syndrome
• Clinical history of

• Rib fractures
• Other fractures
• Osteoporosis
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Cancer
• Myocardial Infarction (MI) / Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
• Arthritis
• Parkinson's disease
• Patient characteristics:

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Body Mass Index (BMI)
• Alcohol use
• Smoking status
• Marital status
• Education
• Initial blood pressure

7.2.2 Follow-up phone calls

The investigators will then attempt to call the patients for follow-up information using a summary explanation of research phone script to obtain the following information:

• pain score
• quality of life via the EuroQol's quality of life survey :EQ-5D-3L questionnaire
• pain meds

Inclusion criteria

• must have above and be notated in our medical record

Exclusion criteria

• missing data