FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Volume 349:1887-1888 November 13, 2003 Number 20 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Related Article by Harrison, M. R. PubMed Citation

Diaphragmatic hernia occurs when any of the four separate structures making up the diaphragm (the septum transversum, pleuroperitoneal membranes, dorsal mesentery of the esophagus, and body wall) fail to grow toward each other or to fuse by the eighth week after conception. The resulting diaphragmatic defect becomes a portal through which abdominal structures can herniate into the thorax (see Figure). In many cases, abdominal organs slide in and out of the thorax intermittently throughout gestation, with apparently little permanent effect on the developing lungs and heart. If there are no other anomalies and the defect is not part of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Division of Maternal–Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Peek, G. J., Elliott, M. J. (2004). Fetal Surgery for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Pediatrics 113: 1810-1811 [Full Text]  
• Silverman, W. A. (2004). Personal reflections on lessons learned from randomized trials involving newborn infants from 1951 to 1967. Clin Trials 1: 179-184