Non-surgical causes of pneumoperitoneum—characteristic ‘Rigler's sign’ in a chest x-ray due to pneumothorax with a diaphragmatic hernia
- 1Deparment of Ageing and Health, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK
- 2Deparment of Orthopaedics, St Thomas' hospital, London, UK
- Correspondence to Dr Frances Dockery, St Thomas' Hospital, Department of Ageing and Health, Westminster Bridge Road London, London SE1 7EH, UK; frances.dockery{at}gstt.nhs.uk
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Contributors All authors looked after this patient during his stay, and managed his condition to discharge.
Introduction
Rigler's sign is a radiological sign of free intraperitoneal air, generally from a perforated viscus. It is the appearance of air on both sides of the bowel wall due to a large quantity of free air in the abdomen. It is important to be aware of the non-surgical causes of this appearance, one of which we describe here.
An 87-year-old man whose only medical history was of a long-standing, seemingly asymptomatic, diaphagramatic hernia (figure 1, preoperative film), underwent a total hip replacement with …
