Liu X, et al. - The researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the impact of surgical and non-surgical fixation treatments for rib fractures (most common traumatic injuries). From February 1958 to April 2018, a literature search was performed in the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases for information. For this investigation, they included studies comparing the benefits of surgical management with that of non-surgical management of rib fractures. Fourteen studies were included, consisting of 839 patients. Compared to the non-surgical management group, the surgical management group experienced a significant decrease in hospitalization time, intensive care time, mechanical ventilation time, mortality rate, pulmonary infection rate and tracheotomy rate. Despite the added expense, surgical management methods are of great value in the treatment of rib fractures compared to non-surgical management.