Clinical Challenges in Trauma Surgery: Traumatic Rib Fractures

The podcast addresses best practices in managing rib fractures, particularly focusing on pain control and treatment strategies for different patient demographics. The discussion highlights the importance of multimodal pain management, including acetaminophen, NSAIDs, gabapentin, muscle relaxants, and lidocaine patches, while cautioning against respiratory depression. The panel emphasizes the need for more aggressive interventions like nerve blocks, on-Q pumps, and epidurals when medication alone is insufficient. They explore how treatment changes for older patients, who often require ICU admission due to increased mortality risk associated with multiple rib fractures, and the panel also discusses the evolving role of operative fixation, including rib plating, in trauma care.