Abstract
The patient, a 59 year-old male, had had chronic empyema without fistulas treated surgically with extraperiosteal air plombage (AP). Multiple rib fractures which occurred one year later required additional surgery. The fractures included all the ribs which had been extraperiosteally resected at the time of AP. Several bone fragments and surrounding hematomas were removed. The fractures might have been cause by malnutrition and poor circulation in the ribs due to AP, as well as to poor reexpansion of the lung and contamination of the pleural cavity after AP.
We conclude that additional care and attention are required for the early detection of multiple rib fractures after AP.
