[Prolapse and herniation of abdominal organs into the thoracic cavity as a diagnostic problem in pulmonology]

In this case report it was shown five cases of passing abdominal organs in thoracic cavum. All of them were women more than 70 years old with symptoms of respiratory illnesses. Their chest-X ray has shown various shadows. They had a long antibiotic treatment in outpatient department before sending to hospital under suspicion of lung or mediastinal tumor. Two of them had anamnesis of trauma a few years ago. All of them had no bronchoscopic intrabroncial changes, two had signs of extramural bronchial compression. All of them had different level of ventilatory insufficiency, with normal laboratory findings, some of them had positional EKG changes. By different diagnostic procedures: chest X-ray, bronchoscopy, gastrointestinal X-ray with contrast, computer thomography of thorax, we found: 2 cases of large hiatal hernia, 1 case of prolapsus whole ventricle in mediastinum, 2 cases of passing ventricle and large part of intestines in thorax. All of them rejected proposed abdominal surgery treatment. We appoint the importance of this appearance to avoid wasting time in appointing the diagnosis, to avoid different diagnostic procedures and long lasting antibiotic treatment, and prevent complications, first of all incarceration of organs.