# How do you set broken ribs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2000, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453 "2000-12-07T08:58:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/21 "2000-12-10T19:56:52Z")
Kinoons True flail chest requires fracture of at least 4 ribs in 2 or more places on each rib, all on contiguous ribs. We’re talking massive thoracic trauma here. I’ve only seen it on patients on a ventilator in a trauma center. Think of a half-order of spare ribs, the ribs severed on both ends. Hmmm… getting hungry now. Time for lunch! ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/22 "2000-12-10T20:37:00Z")
Thanks for the info – I’ll see if I can get my Paramedic instructor to produce a reference to a flail being 2 and 2 – I dont have my text with me at work. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/23 "2000-12-10T21:54:45Z")
Just popping in to say my experience matches all of the speculation and the official medical position. I had surgery on my lung (see the “Worst Pain” thread), and one of my ribs was actually cut and folded out temporarily so they could get in through my back. The cut muscles healed in a few weeks, but my rib clicked for over a year at the cut/break (without pain, FWIW) before it finally decided to settle back down. ---
**Author:** ![TheGoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TheGoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGoat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/24 "2000-12-10T23:34:47Z")
Allright I’m going to hijack this while were still on the topic of hard to set bones. What happens if someone breaks their tail bone? Seriously do people end up in butt casts? If you think you broke your tail bone should you go to a doctor? I’m asking this because (don’t laugh) I was kicked in the ass pretty hard by someone wearing steel toed boots a couple months ago, and it hurt to sit down for a couple of months after that. I thought I had probably fractured my tail bone. Is that possible? ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/25 "2000-12-11T00:22:03Z")
Yes, you can fracture your tail bone – IIRC generally nothing is done for it. Its away from the spinal nevers that pass into your legs. Unless the fragment would be impeading on something, I wouldnt suspect anything to be done. ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/26 "2000-12-11T05:17:38Z")
I broke my tailbone, and the only remedy for it was sitting on a donut pillow, lots of painkillers, and time. Sucked big time. –tygre ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/27 "2000-12-11T07:15:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > \*\*I am an MD, and the above speculations about ribs not needing setting are mostly correct. \ I mostly give the patients with multiple fractures anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, along with valium to decrease the muscle spasms going on between the ribs, and lots of opiate pain killers for the first week or so. \*\* When I busted my ribs snowboarding, and they were rubbing my lungs the wrong way, they gave me a specific anti-inflammatory for the lungs… anyone got any guesses what it might be? ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453/28 "2000-12-11T18:18:09Z")
Qadgop the Mercotan “True flail chest requires fracture of at least 4 ribs in 2 or more places on each rib, all on contiguous ribs. We’re talking massive thoracic trauma here. I’ve only seen it on patients on a ventilator in a trauma center. Think of a half-order of spare ribs, the ribs severed on both ends. Hmmm… getting hungry now. Time for lunch!” According to mosby’s paramedic text a flail chest is 2 or more adjacent ribs broken in two or more places. Is this a situation that the book definition is real nice, but no one seems to flail (show visual paradoxical movement) unless they flailed 4 ribs? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-set-broken-ribs/44453.md?page=1)