Chronic pain and its impact on quality of life following a traumatic rib fracture.

PURPOSE: Traumatic rib fractures account for 7-40 % of trauma admissions and most of them heal spontaneously and do not contribute to disability. The prevalence of chronic pain and its impact on quality of life following a traumatic rib fracture has not been studied adequately.

METHODS

A retrospective review of electronic medical records of all the traumatic rib fracture admissions from January 2007 to December 2008 was conducted. This was followed up with a brief telephonic survey of the following questions: (1) Do you have pain following the trauma? (2) If YES, how severe is your pain from a score of zero to ten? (3) Does the pain affect your life style? (4) Does the pain affect your work? (5) Do you need to take regular pain medications?

RESULTS

One hundred and two patients responded to the survey and 23 patients (22.5 %) complained of chronic persistent pain. In patients with pain, six patients (26 %) had chronic pain that required regular use of analgesics, eight patients (35 %) complained of impairment of work life, and three patients (13 %) complained of impairment of personal quality of life. Chronic pain was not related to age, number of ribs fractured, flail chest, hemothorax and/or pneumothorax, chest tube insertion, or Injury Severity Score (ISS).

CONCLUSION

This study confirms the high incidence of chronic pain after a traumatic rib fracture. While the majority of the patients can manage this pain without interference of their quality of life, a few do suffer from life style/work interference and may have to resort to regular analgesic usage.