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Robert H. Brown, Jr, MD, DPhil; Paul S. Cohen, MD

JAMA. 1978;240(2):140-142.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

HERMANN Boerhaave, DPhil, DMed, published the first case report of spontaneous esophageal rupture in 1724 after establishing the diagnosis at the autopsy of Baron von Wassenaer, Grand Admiral of the Dutch Fleet. Although Jacob Meyer reported the first antemortem diagnosis of this entity in 1858, the first successful surgical repair was not until 1947.¹ Without esophageal repair, the mortality is reported to be from 75% to 90%.^2-4 Without any form of surgical therapy, eg, chest drainage, the mortality approaches 100%, as recently reported by Campbell and co-workers⁵ in THE JOURNAL. A survivor of this disease was cured using closed pleural drainage, antibiotics, intravenous hyperalimentation, and gastric and esophageal suction.

Report of a Case

A 55-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for evaluation of chest pain. His medical records showed a history of duodenal ulcer and a sliding hiatal hernia, without reflux. His only major surgery was . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Medicine (Drs Brown and Cohen), West Roxbury Veterans Hospital, and Department of Medicine (Dr Brown), Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston. Dr Brown is now with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Dr Cohen is now with Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Fruit St, Boston, MA 02114 (Dr Brown).

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