Abstract

Aim: The most common pathology after thoracic trauma is rib fracture. In this study, it was aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between characteristics of fractures and bone mineral densities of patients treated with rib fracture after trauma. Material and Methods: All patients were classified into the following two categories: i) Major trauma (traffic accident, stomping, and fall from height) and minor trauma (falls on a single level, after coughing, and after chopping wood); ii) Patients were also divided into two groups, single rib fracture and multiple rib fractures. In all patients, bone Hounsfield Unit (HU) measurements of L1, L2, and L3 corpuscles entering the thoracic tomography crosssections were performed and their average was recorded. The results were statistically analyzed using the t-test. Results: Of the 23 patients included in the study (4 women, 19 men), all were over 18 years of age and the mean age was 52.1 (32-89) years. There were 12 patients with major trauma, 11 patients with minor trauma. There were only one rib fracture in 7 patients and multiple rib fractures in 16 patients. The mean bone density of all patients was 177.82. Conclusion: The detection of significantly lower densities in a single rib fracture suggests that an injury that may not cause fracture in normal bone densities is likely to cause a single rib fracture in these patients. Patients whose bone mineral density average was lower than 160 were more likely to have rib fractures with minor trauma.

Authors and Affiliations