Boerhaave’s syndrome in a sixty-two-year-old Nigerian man: delayed diagnosis secondary to premorbid symptomatology

Abstract

Boerhaave’s syndrome is a rare spontaneous transmural esophageal rupture from forceful vomiting. It is commonly misdiagnosed either from the non-specific presentation or its mimicking known premorbid conditions. Mortality could be very high and early with delayed diagnosis. We present a rare occurrence of this syndrome in which delayed diagnosis was due to premorbid conditions of bronchial asthma and hypertension and not symptom presentation and with a very good treatment outcome.

Keywords

• boerhaave syndrome
• delayed diagnosis
• mortality
• spontaneous transmural esophageal rupture