This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Oesophageal perforation

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Perforation or rupture of the oesophagus is an important differential diagnosis in chest pain. Clinically, pain follows vomiting and a chest radiograph shows left pleural effusion with gas in the mediastinum. There may be distress, dysphagia and dyspnoea.

It should not be confused with Mallory-Weiss tear, which is a tear in the mucosa of the oesophagus, and thus, is managed more conservatively.


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.