Heparin therapy for mistaken cardiac diagnosis in Boerhaave's syndrome.

We describe two patients with Boerhaave's syndrome who presented with chest pain mimicking cardiac pain and received heparin therapy. One patient developed large intramural esophageal hematoma as a complication of heparin therapy. The other patient had no hematoma and his course was dominated by esophageal rupture. Both were managed conservatively.