title: Boerhaave's syndrome: diagnosis and surgical management.
abstract: Spontaneous oesophageal perforation, or Boerhaave's syndrome, represents barogenic oesophageal injury. Patients don't always present with classical features and treatment may be delayed. Various approaches and strategies have been described but, despite advances in surgery and critical care, the condition continues to carry a high morbidity and mortality. Primary repair may be undertaken in patients who present within 24 hours of perforation and remains the gold standard. Increasingly, this strategy is being adopted for patients who present later with similar mortality rates. Diversion with exclusion and resectional procedures may be undertaken when repair is not possible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, St Thomas Hospital, First Floor North Wing, Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK. aamirzkhan@yahoo.com
authors.forename: A Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Mason
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D004939:Esophageal Perforation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D013577:Syndrome; D013906:Thoracoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed