Chest X-ray findings in late-onset congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a rare emergency easily misdiagnosed as hydropneumothorax: a case report

Late-onset congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a rare anomaly with misleading symptoms and signs.

We describe the case of a 7-year-old Middle Eastern girl who presented with acute nonspecific abdominal symptoms and respiratory distress of 2 days’ duration after sustaining a blunt trauma on her left chest wall on a background of chronic ill-defined left chest pain of 2 weeks’ duration. Her initial chest radiograph showed an air-fluid level, which was thought to be a hydropneumothorax, so a chest tube was inserted and was shown to be positioned between the chest wall and the air collection; therefore, a nasogastric tube was inserted and it was positioned in the left chest cavity so the diagnosis of late-onset congenital diaphragmatic hernia was made. On retrospective analysis of the first abdominal X-ray, it showed a subtle lucent area that was triangular in shape and continued with the chest cavity, which indicates a sign of diaphragmatic hernia. In addition, the next unusual point was the nonvisualization of the diaphragm, which should be reported in any abdominal X-ray. An exploratory laparotomy was performed on our patient using a left-sided subcostal incision; the operative findings revealed a very small posterior rim of the diaphragm and a hypoplastic left lung. Her stomach, spleen, and left colon with the omentum were in the left side of her chest. She made an uneventful recovery postoperatively and was discharged after 1 week.

Gastric and intestinal gas shadow distribution provides an important marker in the diagnosis of late-onset congenital diaphragmatic hernia and should be sought for in every case of suspected congenital diaphragmatic hernia in addition to noting the position of the nasogastric tube in the chest cavity.