Pulmonary complications frequently occur during the postoperative period following surgery for neoplasms of the oesophagus. The aetiology varies according to the time of their onset but the clinical signs and treatment are essentially the same. The problems encountered and related either to anaesthesia, to the surgical approach to the position of the patient. It is after the third day that complication develop related at one and the same to the past history, classical in such patients, (tobacco, chronic bronchitis, alcoholism) and the ectopic position of an abdominal viscus.