Thoracoscopic repair of a transmural rupture of the oesophagus (Boerhaave's syndrome).

Transmural spontaneous oesophageal rupture was first described in 1724 by Boerhaave and in 1946 Barrett was the first to describe successful surgical treatment for this condition. The advent of minimal access surgery has seen a minimally invasive approach to many well recognized surgical conditions and we report a thoracoscopic repair of a spontaneously ruptured oesophagus.