Placement of KANI® plate inside the chest wall for rib fixation: Prevention for organ injuries caused by crossed rib edges and plate claws

The claw‐type titanium plate has been successfully applied to manage a flail chest. However, rare and life‐threatening organ injury occurs due to an insufficient claw bend. We report an ingenuity of surgical fixation using KANI® plates (USCI Japan, Tokyo, Japan) in a flail chest. A 60‐year‐old man with a severe flail chest underwent a surgical rib fixation. He had multiple rib fractures accompanied by dislocation and protruding crossed rib edges; we assumed a possibility of lung injury during a standard procedure in which the KANI® plates would be placed from outside the chest wall. Therefore, we placed KANI® plates inside the chest wall to ensure sufficient claw bend and to cover crossed rib edges to prevent organ injuries. We propose that our new ingenuity provides a safe and tight rib fixation in rib fractures with protruding crossed rib edges which the standard method cannot flatten. The claw‐type titanium plate has been successfully applied to manage a flail chest. However, rare and life‐threatening organ injury occurs due to an insufficient claw bend. We report an ingenuity of surgical fixation using KANI® plates (USCI Japan, Tokyo, Japan) in a case of severe flail chest; we placed KANI® plates inside the chest wall to ensure sufficient claw bend and to cover crossed rib edges of rib fractures to prevent organ injuries.