[Carcinoid of the cecal appendix]

Carcinoid tumors are infrequent but not exceptional neoplasias. The gastroenteric tract is affected in 80% of cases and almost half of these involve the appendix where they almost always represent an occasional finding after appendicectomy due to acute or subacute appendicitis. Although they have a low malignancy potential in this site, with a reduced index of metastasization and scant capacity to determine clinical symptoms, they are of considerable clinical importance in view of the prognostic and therapeutic type problems that their diagnosis entails. The authors report the case of a female 14-years-old patient, operated for acute appendicitis, and the finding of a yellowish hard tumefaction with a diameter of around 2 cm near the appendicular cone which histological tests showed was a relatively benign classic carcinoid.