[Clinical course of an ileal carcinoid with mesenteric metastasis]

This paper aim is to present the case of a male patient, age 63 admitted in hospital for non-specific gastroenterologic symptoms easily attributed to colecyst calculosis; the anamnesis and careful clinical examination have avoided a useless cholecystectomy and permitted to establish indication for laparotomy; during that was found an ileal tumor with massive metastasis in the base of mesentery. The surgical attitude was dictated by histological diagnostic difficulties (prostate adenocarcinoma metastasis), so it has given up the idea of tumor excision (unjustified intraoperative risk for a metastasis), performing a bypass of the ileal tumor by an enteroenterostomy, then the patient was sent to the Oncological Department. Postoperative evaluation of the patient finally permitted to establish the neuroendocrine origin of the tumor; after oncological treatment (chemotherapy), about 10 months after operation the patient didn't present any sign of tumor (tumor markers and CT scan within normal). The paper emphasizes the problem of practicing an aggressive surgical treatment for carcinoid intestinal tumors with mesenteric metastasis but also brings attention to nonsymptomatic forms of cholecyst calculosis that may hide associated malignant tumors undetected by laparoscopic cholecystectomy.