How many ribs does a man have? Fractures of ribs

Before answering the question of how many ribs a person has, it is necessary to give the concept of an edge and determine its purpose. The rib is an arcuate bone that runs from the spine to the chest and forms the thorax. The thorax in turn protects from damage soft tissues, vital organs of the person: heart, lungs, liver and others.

Ribs go in pairs, each person has 12 pairs of ribs. The first 7 are called true, the remaining 5 are false. The lower 4 ribs are called oscillating - they move away from the spine, but do not close on the sternum. It would seem that the only true answer to the question of how many ribs a person has is 24 ribs. However, you can meet people who have 13 or 11 pairs of ribs. Sometimes such an anomaly is due to the innate characteristics of the body, and sometimes it is the result of surgical intervention. Perhaps someone will be puzzled by the fact that people voluntarily fall under the surgeon's knife, removing themselves part of the skeleton. Women perform this operation wishing to get a thin aspen waist and narrow the chest. Men are willing to satisfy themselves orally. How justified are these changes, which run counter to nature itself, is difficult to judge. After all, how many ribs a person has, there are no superfluous ones among them.

Several hundred years ago, when the medicine was in its infancy, the exact answer to the question of how many ribs a person has stumped the most advanced healers. One thing they could say confidently - men should have one rib less than a woman. After all, the Bible says that God created Adam's wife from his rib, which means that one rib is not enough for men. For many centuries this fact did not require evidence, and healers-enthusiasts who conducted autopsy, trying to get to the truth, were declared heretics and sentenced to death. Therefore, the answer to the question of how many pairs of ribs a person had, was found only in the 16th century.

The modern interpretation of this passage from the Bible is slightly different. Church employees now do not refute the scientifically proven medical fact that the number of ribs in a person does not depend on his gender. Now they claim that Adam did not really have one rib, but this feature could not be inherited, as head injuries, amputated fingers or a remote appendix are not transmitted. Thus, religion and medicine today have ceased to contradict each other.

Fracture of the rib is one of the most common injuries of the chest. Most often, ribs are broken in the middle. The lower, mobile and flexible, less likely to fall under attack, and the two upper pairs protect the humerus and clavicle. Most often, the edges are broken when falling, in an accident, in fights. The danger of a fracture is also that often, in addition to the ribs, internal organs get hit. A bone fragment can stick into a light or large vessel, causing bleeding. If open injuries of the ribs can be seen immediately (these are penetrating wounds in the chest with gunshot or stab wounds), then only the specialist can diagnose the closed damage.

Symptoms of the fracture - chest pain, exhaling, hematomas, rapid shallow breathing, bleeding from the upper respiratory organs and internal bleeding.

Fracture of one, in rare cases, two edges, is treated at home after a visit to a traumatologist. The doctor does an x-ray of the chest and in uncomplicated cases appoints the patient analgesics, physiotherapy procedures and expectorants. Also, the patient is prescribed therapeutic gymnastics to improve ventilation of the lungs and complete rest. The rib heals about a month, if there are no accompanying injuries. Otherwise, the recovery period may take 2-3 months or more.