Spontaneous rupture of the esophagus

Spontaneous rupture of the esophagus is a rare emergency that requires immediate diagnosis and superior surgical treatment. Delay in diagnosis is common and is caused mostly by lack of consciousness of the disease and consequent tendency to diagnose a cases as perforated peptic ulcer, pancreatitis, acute coronary disease etc. Mortality and morbidity increase proportionally to the time between esophageal perforation and adequate treatment. In this paper the Authors present a case of Boerhaave's syndrome in a patient who underwent two surgical repairs followed by leakages of the esophageal sutures. The definitive successful treatment has been obtained with a third operation performed after complete sterilization of the mediastinum.