Colon volvulus displaced into the chest - Right-sided posttraumatic hernia or congenital malformation?

Abstract

We present the case of a 13.5-year-old girl who was admitted to the Pediatric Surgery Department from the Pediatric Department of a district hospital, where she stayed because of stomachache and vomiting. Interview revealed blunt injury of the epigastrium a week ago. Chest X-ray revealed a loss of the right diaphragmatic outline, irregular radiolucency on the right side of the chest, collapsed right lung and mediastinal displacement to the left. The patient was operated on, and the surgery revealed herniation of the intestines and half of the stomach into the defect of the right dome of the diaphragm. The patient made an uneventful postoperative recovery. A small innate defect of the diaphragm can remain asymptomatic and undiagnosed as long as there is no herniation of the abdominal organs into the chest.