Late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernia in a child with gastric perforation and acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: Late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernia occurs beyond the neonatal period, and is relatively rare, presenting with nonspecific respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms. CASE: We report a rare case of late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernia in a 7-year-old girl, who presented with abdominal pain, shortness of breath and fever on admission. Work-up revealed intrathoracic gastric perforation, acute pancreatitis and septic shock with a diaphragmatic defect. Due to the high content of amylase in pleural effusion, we suspected the presence of a pancreaticopleural fistula, and we were also puzzled whether the gastric perforation was caused by a pleural indwelling catheterization, but this was ruled out. We about performed a laparotomy to reposition the herniated organs, repair the hernia and the gastric perforation, and undergo the gastrostomy. The girl had an uneventful post-operative recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernias are often misdiagnosed. Clinicians should combine multiple imaging modalities to make a definite diagnosis and perform surgery as soon as possible to avoid severe complications.

[OBSERVATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY FOR LATEPRESENTING CONGENITAL DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effectiveness of thoracoscopic surgery for treating late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernias and summarize the experience. METHODS: Between October 2012 and February 2015, 21 children with late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernias underwent thoracoscopic surgery. Of the 21 cases, 12 were girls and 9 were boys with a median age of 1 year and 3 months (range, 2 months to 8 years). Eight patients had obvious symptom in the initial stage:shortness of breath and dyspnea; 13 cases were found occasionally through chest radiography. Of 21 cases, 17 had left diaphragmatic hernias and 4 had right diaphragmatic hernias. The emergency surgery was performed in 5 cases because oppressed obviously and selective operation in 16 cases. Hernial sac existed in 5 cases; there were 19 cases of Bochdalek's hernia and 2 cases of Morgagni's hernia. The size of diaphragmatic defect ranged from 3 cm×2 cm to 5 cm×5 cm. RESULTS: The operation time was 35-80 minutes (mean, 50 minutes), and intraoperative blood loss was 3-5 mL (mean, 3.8 mL). Primary healing of incision was obtained. Postoperative abdominal distension and pneumothorax occurred in 12 and 2 cases respectively. The follow-up time was 1-3 years (mean, 20 months). All the cases had a good recovery and satisfactory appearance of the thoracic incision. The symptoms and signs of shortness of breath and dyspnea disappeared. There was no recurrence and chest infection. CONCLUSIONS: Under the conditions of mastering operative indications strictly, thoracoscopic repair for late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernia is safe and feasible. It can facilitate the procedure and decrease the recurrence rate relying on intraoperative application of hernia repair needle, knot pusher-assistant, and reasonable processing defect periphery.

Late-presenting right congenital diaphragmatic hernia with severe hypotrophy of the right lobe of the liver.

INTRODUCTION: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) presenting after 30 days of life is unusual and has a variant pattern of presentation. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present a death case occurred to a 34-days-old infant. The infant arrived to our emergency department in cardiac arrest after having suffered from intermittent acute abdominal pain. Autopsy confirmed the presence of a right CDH, with herniation of the right lobe of the liver into the thorax. DISCUSSION: Most of the cases of CDH are diagnosed prenatally or in the neonatal period. However, some patients do not develop symptoms until after the neonatal period. The relevance of our case is the co-existence of right CDH and important hypotrophy of the right lobe of the liver. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence of this phenomenon represents an absolute novelty in the extant scientific literature. Even if rare, we suggest to suspect the presence of CDH in fetus with disparity in right and left liver lobe at prenatal ultrasound.

Oclusión intestinal por hernia de Bochdalek / Intestinal occlusion caused by Bochdalek hernia

La hernia de Bochdalek es un defecto congénito de la región posterolateral del diafragma, usualmente del lado izquierdo, se presenta en 1 de cada 2 000-5 000 nacidos vivos, su diagnóstico en el momento del nacimiento es relativamente fácil, no así cuando este debe realizarse después del período neonatal, pues puede conllevar a evaluaciones erróneas desde el punto de vista clínico y radiológico. La presentación tardía de esta entidad no es frecuente, por lo que nos proponemos dar a conocer un caso de oclusión intestinal por hernia diafragmática de presentación tardía y revisar la literatura al respecto. Se presenta un lactante de 5 meses producto de un tercer embarazo, parto distócico por presentación pelviana, oligoamnios, Apgar 9-9, antecedentes de salud hasta el cuarto mes en que se le introduce leche de chiva y comienza con regurgitaciones bastante frecuentes. Se le realiza diagnóstico a los 5 meses de oclusión intestinal por hernia diafragmática congénita. Se interviene quirúrgicamente sin complicaciones posoperatorias, es dado de alta a los 7 días, y seguido por consulta externa, con evolución satisfactoria. La hernia diafragmática congénita, cuando se presenta después del periodo neonatal, puede diagnosticarse incidentalmente en un estudio radiológico, o por complicaciones secundarias al paso de las vísceras abdominales al tórax

Bochdalek hernia is a congenital defect of the posterolateral region of the diaphragm, usually located on the left side. It appears in one per 2000 to 5000 live births; the diagnosis at birth is relatively easy but after the neonatal period, it can lead to erroneous assessments from the clinical and radiological viewpoints. The late-presenting hernia is not frequent, so we intended to present a case of intestinal occlusion caused by late-presenting diaphragmatic hernia and to make a literature review on this topic. Here is the case of a 5 months-old infant born from a third pregnancy, which was dystotic as a result of pelvic presentation and with oligohydramnios. He had an Apgar score of 9.9 and a history of health problems until his fourth month of life when he began to be fed with goat's milk and it appeared pretty frequent regurgitation. He was diagnosed at 5 months of life with intestinal occlusion due to congenital diaphragmatic hernia. He was operated on, no complications were observed and then he was discharged from the hospital after 7 days and followed-up at outpatient service, with satisfactory recovery. The congenital diaphragmatic hernia that occurs after the neonatal period can be incidentally diagnosed in a radiological study or because of secondary complications when abdominal viscerae passed into the thorax