Acute Presentation of the Neuroendocrine Tumor of the Terminal Ileum with Obstructive Ileus – Case Report
Jurij Janež *
Department of Abdominal Surgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloška Cesta 7, 1525 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Neuroendocrine tumors of the small bowel are rare neoplasms and are most commonly found in duodenum and terminal ileum. They can present with symptoms of carcinoid syndrome, intestinal obstruction, bleeding or abdominal pain. The diagnosis is often not straight-forward because they are rare neoplasms and are frequently not readily considered in the differential diagnosis. Also clinical manifestations are nonspecific, lending the clinician no clue that points directly to this entity. Even in advanced stage in the presence of nodal and distant metastases the survival is still severeal years. The mainstay of treatment of small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors is surgery.
In this paper is presented a case of a middle-aged male patient with unusual and rare initial clinical manifestation of an ileal neuroendocrine tumor, causing an acute intestinal obstruction, requiring an emergency operation.
Keywords: Neuroendocrine tumor, small intestine, ileum, ileus, surgery.