The paper reports a case of chronic right posttraumatic diaphragmatic hernia which was brought to the authors' attention due to onset of intestinal subocclusion. Surgery was performed using thoracotomy with reduction of the ilial loops in the abdomen and suture of the diaphragmatic breech; a laparotomic route was used to resect a tract of ischemic small intestine using a termino-terminal anastomosis. The authors discuss the etiopathogenetic, diagnostic and therapeutic problems in the light of data reported in the literature.