Prone ventilation in a patient with severe ARDS having a floating sternum.

Prone ventilation is used to manage patients with refractory hypoxia in the critical care unit. Complex chest trauma and chest drains have been a considered relative contraindication to prone ventilation. To the best of our knowledge, it is hitherto unreported in patients having traumatic floating sternum and acute respiratory distress. We present a brief case report of a patient with floating sternum (complete disruption of sternum) managed successfully by prone position ventilation. © BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.