Up to 7% of adult patients with blunt thoracoabdominal trauma will present a ruptured diaphragm, which is on the left side in 90% of cases according to the international literature. These hernias can be acute or chronic, as determined by the time of their clinical presentation. The surgical approach for the hernia repair, either laparoscopic or thoracic, is still a matter of debate.
We present the case of a 70-year-old female patient with a history of trauma injury 40 years earlier. Presently, during a study for respiratory failure and asthenia, she was diagnosed with a giant right diaphragmatic hernia detected on a computed tomography (CT) scan (Fig. 1). The defect was repaired laparoscopically, and the patient’s postoperative progress was satisfactory.