Does sternal fracture increase the risk for aortic rupture?

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 99 patients who suffered sternal fractures between 1968 and 1987. Patients ranged in age from 5 to 86 years. The most common cause of injury was a motor vehicle accident. The 99 patients were compared with a concurrent series of 2,106 patients with chest injuries and no sternal fractures. Traumatic aortic rupture occurred in 2 of 99 patients with sternal fractures (2%) and in 75 of 2,106 patients without sternal fracture (3.6%). This difference was not statistically significant by the Fisher exact test (p = 0.326). We conclude that traumatic aortic rupture does not occur more commonly in patients with sternal fracture when compared with other patients with blunt chest injuries.