[A clinically unsuspected pheochromocytoma]

Pheochromocytomas are often unnoticed, and diagnosis is performed on autopsy examination, or more rarely it is noticed during surgery or abdominal exam for a different reason. In many of these patients the lack of hypertension is a characteristic feature. We contribute a singular case of a patient with pheochromocytoma found by chance during an abdominal exam and which in spite of secreting noradrenaline, did not provoke hypertension or other symptoms. We review literature on this stage form of presentation and the different physio-pharmacological hypothesis which could condition the absence of clinical manifestations. We discuss the preoperative management in patients without hypertension.