CClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT03487458Updated Apr 4, 2018

Quality of Life in Patients With Traumatic Rib Fracture After Rib Fracture Surgery

An interventional study of Rib Fixation Surgery in Rib Fractures, sponsored by National Taiwan University Hospital. Status unknown at 1 site in Taiwan. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-04-04.

Sponsored by National Taiwan University Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jun 2017), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
50
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study is a prospective study. Patients with traumatic rib fractures are divided into control group and surgical (OP) group, depending on whether they undergo rib fracture fixation surgeries. They complete Short Form-36 and Work Quality Index (WQI) before surgery and after surgery (before discharge, post-surgery 1 month, 3 months and 6 months). The goal of this study is to examine the life quality of patients who receive surgical treatment for rib fracture by analyzing patients' response, comorbidity, vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) etc.), severity of fracture (AIS, ISS) and medical costs. The investigators hope to find the most suitable method of treatment for patients with rib fractures.

Read the detailed description

Traumatic rib fracture is one of the most common thoracic traumas. Patients often complain of severe pain of the fracture site, especially when coughing, sneezing, inhaling and lifting arms. If there is obvious displacement of the rib fracture, there are risks of life-threatening open pneumothorax, hemothorax and internal bleeding. Multiple rib fractures may even cause flail chest, leading to respiratory distress and respiratory failure.

Even patients with mild rib fractures may suffer from pain, causing movement limitations and poor sleep. Those whose occupations require heavy labors may even lose their jobs.

Large wounds and difficulties with localization and fixation made surgical interventions a poor option in the past. Thus, treatment goals were set on pain control and infection prevention. However, in recent years, there are improvements with medical imaging, endoscopy and fracture fixation instruments, so rib fracture fixations become a new treatment option. In addition, patients now ask for higher life quality after the trauma recovery, and not just passively controlling the pain and infection.

Therefore, this study is a prospective study. The investigators enrolled patients with traumatic rib fractures from the National Taiwan University Hospital and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from July 2017 to July 2018. This study incorporated the use of Short Form-36 and Work Quality Index (WQI) to compare the control groups and the surgical (OP) groups. The participants would complete the questionnaires before surgery and after surgery (before discharge, post-surgery 1 month, 3 months and 6 months).

The goal of this study is to examine the life quality of patients who receive surgical treatment for rib fracture by analyzing patients' response, comorbidity, vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, GCS etc.), severity of fracture (AIS, ISS) and medical costs. The investigators hope to find the most suitable method of treatment for patients with rib fractures.

02

Conditions studied

  • Rib Fractures
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Absolute Indications:

  1. Flail chest with paradoxical respiration
  2. Multiple rib fractures with uncontrolled hemothorax or pneumothorax
  3. Severe thoracic trauma causing respiratory failure (ex poor blood oxygen saturation, hypercapnia, overtime intubation etc.)

Relative Indications:

  1. Fractures of 3 or more ribs, with moderate amount of hemothorax or pneumothorax
  2. Fractures of 3 or more ribs, with clavicle or scapula fractures, requiring surgical intervention
  3. Fractures of 3 or more ribs, with obvious rib displacement and pain
  4. Chronic neuropathic pain, with poor drug control
  5. Symptoms due to poor healing of fracture site (ex. dyspnea or restrictive lung disease)
  6. Chest deformity or other cosmetic factors
  7. Other personal factors (ex. disability caused by rib fractures)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. High risk for surgery (ex. Age greater than 75 y/o, poor cardiopulmonary function, abnormal coagulation, end-stage renal disease, hepatic failure etc.)
  2. Severe chest trauma, with large area of lung contusion or pulmonary embolism
  3. More than 2 organs of systemic severe trauma (ex. combining head trauma, abdominal internal bleeding, abdominal organ rupture etc.)
  4. Poor rib fracture site (ex. posterior axillary line, 1st-3rd rib, sub-scapula etc.)
  5. Patient refuses surgery
  6. current acute infection
  7. Allergy to surgical instruments
  8. Lack of sufficient blood supply, poor bone density or potential infection
  9. Psychiatric or neuropathic conditions causing inability to obey doctor's order
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
50 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • No intervention
    Control

    participants receive no surgical treatment

  • Experimental
    Rib Fixation Surgery

    participants receive surgical treatment

    Procedure: Rib Fixation Surgery

Interventions

  • ProcedureRib Fixation Surgery

    Rib Fixation Surgery

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Short Form-36 (SF-36)

    questionnaire filled by patient

    Time frame: Assessment of change in SF-36 scores for the control group at admission and after discharge for up to six months and for the surgical group before and after surgery for up to 6 months.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Work Quality Index (WQI)

    questionnaire filled by patient

    Time frame: Assessment of change in WQI for the control group at admission and after discharge for up to six months and for the surgical group before and after surgery through study completion for up to 6 months.

  2. Days of admission

    Days of admission in the hospital

    Time frame: Assessment of total number of days of hospitalization including ICU stay after admission through study completion for up to 6 months.

  3. Severity of hemothorax

    The severity of hemothorax is evaluated by amount of chest tube drainage measured in milliliters per day.

    Time frame: Assessment of progression or resolution of hemothorax after simple chest drainage for up to 3 days after chest drainage insertion in the control group and before operation, post-OP day 1, and post-OP day 3 for up to 3 days' post-operation in the surgical

  4. Pain

    The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS-11), with a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 as no pain, 10 as extremely painful

    Time frame: Every 8 hours during hospitalization for up to 1 month and outpatient follow-up at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after discharge through study completion for a total of 6 months.

06

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • National Taiwan University Hospital
    Taipei, 10048, Taiwan
    Recruiting
07

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03487458
Lead sponsor
National Taiwan University Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 4, 2018
Start date
Jun 13, 2017
Primary completion
Jun 12, 2018 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 12, 2018 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 4, 2018

Study contacts

Hsien-Chi Liao
Contact
polarisliao@hotmail.com
886-2-23123456 ext. 51611

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Jun 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion