Twenty children with traumatic diaphragmatic rupture were admitted to the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Çukurova University Hospital. There were eleven boys and nine girls. Their ages ranged between one and fifteen years. The etiology was penetrating trauma in four and blunt trauma in 16 of the children. Diagnosis was made by chest x-ray in ten, barium study of the gastrointestinal tract in four, and six children were taken directly to surgery. The ruptures were on the left in twelve patients, on the right in six, bilateral in one and hiatal in one. The length of the ruptures ranged between one and fifteen centimeters. The incidence of the placement in the thorax through the rupture of the organs is as follows: stomach five, colon five, intestines five, liver three, gallbladder two and spleen two. Seventeen children had also additional organ injuries. Eighteen of the patients survived the trauma but two died. The mortality rate was found to be 10 percent.

Keywords: trauma, rupture of the diaphragm, diaphragmatic hernia