A recent surgical technique to heal broken ribs has been pioneered by a consultant thoracic surgeon, Routledge.
A recent surgical technique to heal broken ribs has been pioneered by a consultant thoracic surgeon, Routledge. This technique can help people recover from broken ribs in days. Earlier, broken ribs took weeks and months to heal and the only option was to strap up the ribs and consume painkillers.
With this, patients could experience breathing problems and pneumonia.
This new surgical procedure called the Synthes Rib Matrix, can really change the recovery time for the better.
In this procedure, the ribs are not allowed to heal by themselves. Instead custom-made metal plates are pinned to the broken bones to hasten the healing process and reduce pain.
“Ribs are like dry twigs and they can break very easily – in some cases just by coughing. This also makes them very difficult to repair. We now have the technology to stabilise the fracture, pulling the ribs back into place, which relieves the pain straight away,” says Routledge, who works at London hospitals Guy’s and London Bridge.
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