Is hospitalization necessary in isolated traumatic sternal fractures?

Abstract

Objectives: Clinical characteristics, follow-up and treatment outcomes of patients with isolated traumaticsternal fracture were presented and our clinical experiences on these patients were shared.Methods: Between January 2010 and December 2017, a total of 87 patients with isolated traumatic sternalfracture who were admitted to the emergency department and were hospitalized, were included in thisobservational cohort study. Medical data of these patients were collected from hospital records and then wereretrospectively reviewed.Results: There were 65 (74.7%) male and 22 (25.3%) female patients. Mean age was 42.4 ± 13.7 years (range:17-83). The most common etiological reason was traffic accident in vehicle. Sternal fractures were localizedat corpus in 64 (73.6%) patients and at manubrium in 23 (26.4%) patients. The most common concomitantpathology was rib fracture with a ratio of 23% (20 patients). Mean length of hospital stay of patients was 3.1± 0.8 days. During the hospitalization period, no evidence of cardiac injury was observed in any patient.Conclusions: In view of rising healthcare costs and increasing demand for acute hospital and intensive carebeds, it is crucial to determine hospitalization criteria for cases with traumatic sternal fracture. We believe thatthe hospitalization is not necessary in isolated traumatic sternal fractures where there is no other major injury.