Right sided traumatic diaphragmatic hernia repair with intrathoracic herniation of liver, stomach and transverse colon

Abstract

Traumatic rupture of the right dome of the diaphragm is an uncommon clinical entity. The diagnosis is difficult due to lack of specificity in clinical signs and chest film findings. Clinical incidence of rupture of the right dome of the diaphragm due to blunt trauma is much less common (10%) compared to the left (90%) and usually associated with more grievous injuries with very high pre hospital mortality thus accounting for rare clinical diagnosis. We report a case of 26 year old male who had the blunt trauma chest referred to us after 7 days of injury with complaints of shortness of breath and vomiting. On investigations the patient was diagnosed as a case of the ruptured right dome of the diaphragm with intrathoracic herniation of the stomach. The patient also had fracture pelvis. Surgical exploration was done through right 6th intercostal space which revealed intrathoracic herniation of the stomach, liver and transverse colon, which were healthy. Contents reduced into the abdomen and diaphragm was repaired. Post operative chest X-ray suggested complete expansion of the right lung with no residual herniation of abdominal contents. Post operative recovery was uneventful with the patient discharged on 14th post operative day.

Keywords

• Blunt trauma chest
• Blunt trauma abdomen
• Traumatic right sided diaphragm rupture