Traumatic Rupture of the Diaphragm

Taichi Sato, Haruhiko Chigira, Takehito Kato, Yosihisa Shibata, Masaomi Suzuki and Sigemi Onoue

Department of Surgery, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital

We report 11 cases -8 men and 3 women- of traumatic diaphragm rupture between January 1989 and December 2001 in patients aged from 2 to 85 years. In 9, injury was due to traffic accident and complicated by other lesions. Rupture occurred on the right side of the diaphragm in 1 and on the left side in 10. Diagnosis was preoperative in 9, and intraoperative in 2. Surgery involved laparotomy in 10 cases and thoracotomy with laparotomy in 1. The diaphragmatic defect was repaired by direct suture in all 11. One patient died from blood loss, 1 from liver injury, and 1 from encephalopathy. Prognosis was not affected by traumatic diaphragm rupture. Early surgery is thus indicated for traumatic diaphragm rupture.

Key words
trauma, diaphragm rupture

Reprint requests
Taichi Sato Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya
65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, 466-8550 JAPAN

Accepted
September 24, 2008

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