Twenty-five patients with perforation of esophagus were managed at Pusan National University Hospital, from 1981 to 1993. The hospital course of 14 of these patients was evaluated with a special emphasis on the cause and location of perforation, clinical presentation, time elapsed from perforation to treatment, method of treatment, and outcome. Patients with anastomotic leak and cancer were excluded.The perforation was iatrogenic in 7 patients, spontaneous in 5, ingestion of foreign body in 1, and traumatic in 1. There were 7 cervical perforations, 2 upper thoracic perforations, and 5 lower thoracic perforations. Chest pain, fever, and dyspnea were frequent symptoms. Esophagography was most diagnostic [11 patients] but thoracentesis was of little diagnostic aid.Antibiotics were administered intravenously to all patients:hyperalimentation was accomplished intravenously in 11, and nasogastric suction was used in all cases. No patient required any surgical procedure, minor or major.