Patients With Rib Fractures Do Not Develop Delayed Pneumonia: A Prospective, Multicenter Cohort Study of Minor Thoracic Injury
Background
In 2006, there were 119.2 million visits to hospital
emergency departments (EDs) in the United States, and
more than one third of them were injury-related. Thoracic
trauma frequency is estimated at 12 people per million per
day, representing more than 796,000 ED visits annually.
In the case of thoracic trauma, injuries of moderate
severity are most often sustained to the chest wall and thus
rarely require surgical intervention. Ziegler and Agarwal
reported a 10% incidence of rib fractures in trauma patients
treated at their site. In 2003, Liman et al observed that 2 of
3 patients could be safely discharged from EDs. As financial
pressures create more ambulatory care situations, minor
thoracic injury patients are rapidly discharged from EDs
without appropriate follow-up.
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