id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-004327-ofqay81v	Wu, Tung-Ho	Facilitating ventilator weaning through rib fixation combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in severe blunt chest injury with acute respiratory failure	2020-02-12		.txt	text/plain	3859	251	55	We aimed to evaluate the effect of performing rib fixation with the addition of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) on patients with ARF caused by blunt thoracic injury with ventilator dependence. METHODS: This observational study prospectively enrolled patients with multiple bicortical rib fractures with hemothorax caused by severe blunt chest trauma. CONCLUSION: Rib fixation combined with VATS could shorten the length of ventilator use and reduce the pneumonia rate in patients with severe chest blunt injury with ARF. Factors that could affect the ventilator dependence-including consciousness levels, number of fractured ribs, percentage of flail chest, lung contusion scores, AISs, and ISSs-all exhibited no statistically significant differences. In this study, rib fixation with VATS in patients with such severe blunt chest trauma and ARF could greatly decrease the length of ventilator dependence. In contrast with other studies, we performed rib fixation combined with VATS to completely manage chest wall injury, lung laceration, and pleural collections.	./cache/cord-004327-ofqay81v.txt	./txt/cord-004327-ofqay81v.txt