Pancreatic heterotopia of the small intestine: two case reports

The presence of heterotopic pancreas is unusual with an estimated incidence of 0.2% of upper abdominal operations. Heterotopic pancreas occurs predominantly in the stomach, duodenum and proximal jejunum. Isolated pancreatic heterotopia of the ileum is very rare and is usually found in a Meckel's diverticulum. In most cases, these heterotopias are asymptomatic and are only incidentally detected upon pathological examination or autopsy. In this paper, the authors report two cases of pancreatic heterotopia involving, respectively, the duodenum and ileum that were fortuitously discovered on a surgical specimen and during laparotomy for unrelated causes.