Evidence-Based Medical News

Mode

All Infectious Disease Oncology Neurology Cardiology Psychiatry Diabetes & Endocrinology Pediatrics Allergy & Immunology Rheumatology Gastroenterology Primary Care & Family Medicine Nutrition & Obesity Medicine Orthopedics & Sports Medicine OB/GYN & Women's Health Radiology & Imaging Genetics & Precision Medicine Pulmonology & Critical Care Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine Physical Medicine & Rehab Nephrology Hematology Urology Ophthalmology Dermatology Emergency Medicine Geriatrics & Aging ENT (Otolaryngology) Palliative Care

Research

Clinical Trials Drug Pipeline Weekly Digests

Reference

Conditions Medications

Community

Text Size

Log in / Sign up

Rib Fracture

4 published articles · Updated continuously

Clinical Trial Landscape

Clinical Trials for Rib Fracture

9 trials tracked for Rib Fracture: 3 in phase 3 or 4 and 3 with published results. The most-cited published study has 203 citations.

9Trials tracked

3Phase 3 & 4

0Recruiting

3With published results

Phase distribution

Phase 4 3 Phase 2 1 Other / NA 5

Phase 4 Dexmedotomidine for Acute Pain Control in Patients With Multiple Rib FracturesRandomized Controlled Trial Completed · 203 cited
Phase 4 Ketamine Infusion Therapy for the Management of Acute Pain in Adult Rib Fracture Patients Completed · 78 cited
Phase 4 Trial of Injected Liposomal Bupivacaine vs Bupivacaine Infusion After Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures Completed · 10 cited
Phase 2 Intercostal Liposomal Bupivacaine for the Management of Blunt Chest Wall Trauma Completed
N/A A Retrospective Review of Rib Fracture Pain Management at a London Major Trauma Centre Completed
N/A Clinical Study of the U-Plate Fracture Repair System to Treat Rib Fractures Completed

Show 3 more trials

Showing the 9 most-cited and recently-updated of 9 trials. Browse the full registry →

Trial data sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. Counts describe the research landscape and are not a treatment recommendation. Informational only — not medical advice.

What the trials found Updated — new results For clinicians

Rib Fracture: what the trials found

Dexmedetomidine is established as an intervention for rib fracture management in a Phase 4 trial ¹.

Ketamine has been evaluated and utilized for pain management in patients with rib fractures, demonstrating Visual Analog Numeric Pain Scores of 5.8, 5.6, 4.4, and 5.1 ⁴.

Liposomal bupivacaine injection was studied as a local regional anesthetic; results showed no statistically significant differences in SCARF scores (p=0.12), daily narcotic requirements (p=0.41), or the percentage of patients experiencing failure of primary loco-regional analgesia (p=0.23) ⁵.

Recent results — preliminary, needs further review

Cryoneurolysis of intercostal nerves showed no statistically significant difference in daily numeric pain scores (p=0.2228), while results for daily narcotic equivalents were not statistically significant (p=0.068); 30-day mortality was zero in both groups (p=0) ².
Cryoneurolysis did not result in statistically significant differences in acute pain scores (p=0.493), ICU admissions (p=0.947), or length of hospital stay (p=0.77) ³.

For the clinician treating this condition

Pharmacological options for rib fracture include Dexmedetomidine ¹ and Ketamine, the latter of which showed varied numeric pain scores in clinical evaluation ⁴.
Liposomal bupivacaine is established as a regional analgesic; however, it did not show statistically significant differences compared to standard care regarding respiratory function scores or narcotic requirements ⁵.
Cryoneurolysis of intercostal nerves shows no significant impact on acute pain scores or length of stay when compared to alternative treatments in recent studies [2, 3].

AI synthesis of 5 cited trials, updated Jun 26, 2026. Informational only — not medical advice; trial data sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. How we use AI.