A rib fracture is the medical term for a broken rib. Rib fractures are usually caused by car accidents, sports injuries or other traumas. It’s possible to break a rib without experiencing trauma, too.
It’s rare to need surgery to repair a rib fracture, unless the injury that broke your rib damaged your internal organs. Unlike most other types of bone fractures, you probably won’t need treatment other than rest, ice and breathing exercises. Most people need at least a month to recover from a rib fracture.
Even if you can recover with at-home treatments, rib fractures can have life-threatening complications. See a healthcare provider or go to the emergency room if you’re experiencing symptoms like pain and tenderness around your ribs and chest, or if you have trouble breathing.
What are the symptoms of a rib fracture?
Symptoms of a rib fracture include:
Pain (especially when you breathe, cough or move your chest and upper body).
Rib fractures usually occur during traumas, which means there’s a chance you have other injuries. A broken rib can cause serious damage inside your body. Your ribs protect several of your most important organs, including your:
If the injury that caused the fracture pushed your ribs into your body, the pieces of bone can cut (lacerate), poke holes in (puncture) or bruise your organs.
Trouble breathing (pulmonary complications)
Breathing with a broken rib can be painful. If you don’t breathe as deeply as you usually do while your ribs are fractured, you have an increased risk of developing pneumonia.
Rib fractures can also lead to a collapsed lung (sometimes called pneumothorax).
How are rib fractures treated?
How your rib fracture is treated depends on the severity of the original break. Your broken bones need to heal back together. If any of your organs were damaged during a trauma, you might need to stay in the hospital while those injuries are repaired.
Most rib fractures can be treated with rest, icing and over-the-counter (OTC) NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen. Your provider will tell you how often to ice your injury, but in general, you can ice your ribs for 20 minutes at a time a few times a day.
You’ll probably need to do some breathing exercises or cough on purpose every few hours while you’re recovering. This helps prevent pneumonia and keeps your lungs and chest moving like they usually do. Pressing a pillow to your injured ribs can help cushion any pain during your breathing exercises.
Rib fracture surgery
It’s rare to need surgery for a fractured rib. You’ll only need surgery if you have serious internal injuries, or if your bones haven’t healed back together properly (a complication called nonunion or malunion).
Internal fixation
The most serious fractures require surgery. Your surgeon will realign (set) your bones to their correct position and then secure them in place so they can heal and grow back together. They usually perform what’s called an internal fixation, which means your surgeon inserts pieces of metal into your bone to hold it in place while it heals. You’ll probably need to limit how much you use the surgically repaired part of your body to make sure your bone can fully heal.
Internal fixation techniques include:
Plates and screws: Metal plates screwed into your bone to hold the pieces together and in place.
Pins and wires: Pins and wires hold pieces of bone in place that are too small for other fasteners. They’ll typically be used at the same time as either rods or plates.
Some people live with these pieces inserted in them forever. You might need follow-up surgeries to remove them.
Bone grafting
You might need bone grafting if your rib fracture is severely displaced or if your bone isn’t healing back together as well as it should. Your surgeon will insert additional bone tissue to rejoin your fractured bone. After that, they’ll usually perform an internal fixation to hold the pieces together while your bone regrows. Bone grafts can come from a few sources:
Internally from somewhere else in your body — usually the top of your hip bone.
An external donor.
An artificial replacement piece.
Complications of rib fracture treatment
Rib fracture surgery complications include:
Malunion: This happens when your broken bones don’t line up correctly while they heal.
Nonunion: Your bones may not grow back together fully or at all.
Bone infection (osteomyelitis): If you have an open fracture (the bone breaks through your skin) you have an increased risk of bacterial infection.
How soon after treatment will I feel better?
It’ll take a few weeks for your symptoms to improve. Contact your healthcare provider right away if you experience intense pain that doesn’t get better or if you’re having trouble breathing.
How are rib fractures diagnosed?
A healthcare provider will diagnose a rib fracture with a physical exam. They might also use imaging tests to check for damage to your organs.
What tests are done to diagnose a rib fracture?
After a physical exam, you might need at least one of a few imaging tests:
X-rays: An X-ray can confirm any rib fractures or other fractures and show how damaged your bones are.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Your provider might use an MRI to get a complete picture of the damage to your bones and the area around them. This will show them tissue around your bones, too. This is especially important to determine if your muscles, connective tissue and organs were injured.
CT scan: If you need surgery, your provider or surgeon needs to know exactly how damaged your bones are. A CT scan will give them a more detailed picture of your bones and the surrounding tissue than an X-ray. You might need a CT scan if your X-rays were inconclusive or to help your surgeon plan your surgery.
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