[Three cases of villous adenoma of the Vater papilla]

A series of three cases of villous adenoma of the papilla of Vater is reported. In two cases, the pathological diagnosis made before, during and after surgery was of benign villous adenoma. In the third case, the diagnosis made before and during surgery was of adenoma but in the postsurgical examination a macro-invading carcinoma was found. Further endoscopic exploration revealed a recurrent villous adenoma and further surgery was carried out. Total resection, rather than a duodenopancreatectomy, was performed due to the length of time from detection of the recurrence until the second operation as well as to the small size of the recurrent tumor in the surgical examination.