[Intestinal paralysis in long-term diabetes mellitus]

A 74 year old patient with diabetes mellitus was hospitalized because of nausea, recurrent vomiting and increasing fatigue. Shortly before admittance the patient had diarrhea. He also reported a recent onset of aversion against meat consumption. Clinical investigation revealed a possible right-sided paraumbilical abdominal tumor, normal bowel sounds, a vascular bruit and a normal white blood count with increased band forms. During hospitalisation the general condition of the patient deteriorated rapidly with fever and increasing numbers of immature granulocytes. The patient finally died under the symptoms of a paralytic ileus with hypotonia and hypoglycemia. Autopsy revealed a fist-sized stenosing tumor in the cecum with the histology of a mainly well differentiated, cylindrocellular adenocarcinoma. As immediate cause of death a bilateral paracentral lung embolism with pulmonary edema was found, the latter probably as immediate consequence of preterminal heart failure.