A contemporary view on plate fixation in thoracic wall trauma

Flail chest in a trauma patient presents itself with a number of problems. The mainstay treatment in the past was analgesia with non-operative observation but due to the increased rate of complications, new treatment modalities have been researched. Chest wall plate fixation has emerged as the go-to solution for these patients but consensus lacks regarding when it should be applied, to what category of trauma patients, which technique and which surgical specialty should be the promoter of this technique. All these problems have arisen due to the lack of large prospective studies. A number of these studies are ongoing with results to be published in the near future. Until then, preliminary data have demonstrated the superiority of plate fixation in flail chest in comparison with the non-operative management.