[Personal experience in the diagnosis and therapy of Boerhaave's syndrome]

At the Surgical Clinic of the Faculty Hospital in Hradec Králové during the last 20 years 32 patients with perforation of the oesophagus were treated. Of these five had a spontaneous rupture of the oesophagus--Boerhaave's syndrome. The authors describe their own experience with the diagnosis of this syndrome. They emphasize the importance of early diagnosis which determines the type of surgical treatment, makes a more radical operation possible, reduces the percentage of complications and thus also the high mortality of this syndrome.