Novel surgical approach without bowel resection for multiple gastrointestinal lipomatosis: A case report

Asymptomatic lipoma only requires observation, whereas symptomatic lipoma requires treatment such as endoscopic or surgical resection. However, in case of multiple lipomas, with evident diffusion and malignancy, resection procedure and range cannot be determined. We experienced GI lipomatosis (multiple lipomas) diffusely existing from the duodenum to the small intestine and involved recurrent intussusception.

47 year-old female was a history of open bowel resection for intestinal obstruction caused by intussusceptions of multiple small intestinal lipoma 11 years ago. EGD showed duodenal lipoma, and CT showed diffuse multiple lipomas from the proximal jejunum to the distal ileum. Another CT also showed intussusception of small intestine, but no signs of intestinal obstruction. Surgical procedures performed included diagnostic laparoscopy. All intestinal lipomas were resected with local excision, and duodenal lipoma was resected with ESD without any bowel resection.

Multiple local excision  ESD for multiple GI lipomatosis have not been reported. The most problematic thing is that if extensive resection is performed to cut off all multiple lipoma, short bowel syndrome may occur. Determining the range to be cut remains unclear.

Multiple local excision ± ESD seemed to be one of the methods in resecting multiple GI lipomatosis. In the future, cases and indications of surgery and resection method for GI lipoma should be accumulated and considered, respectively.