[Traumatic intrathoracic herniation of the left kidney]

The detection of a intrathoracic kidney is an exceptional discovery. There is a large period of time between the injury and its clinical presentation revising the literature, so it is possible that the herniation of the kidney into the chest was caused by a rise in intra-abdominal pressure but going through a preexistent congenital way not caused by the traumatism. In order to dismiss this possibility and to prove the traumatic origin of the diaphragmatic rupture, surgeons have examined the intraoperative characteristics of the rupture's borders. The elevation of the kidney has been said to be progressive because of the positive intra-thoracic pressure and the negative intra-abdominal one. Our objective is to report an extraordinary case of abdominal traumatism whose clinic and radiological proofs let us get a rapid diagnosis and surgical demonstration of the direct herniation of the left kidney into the chest through a diaphragmatic rupture caused by the same traumatism.