Small bowel adenocarcinoma complicating Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease of the small intestine is usually managed by medical therapy with surgery being reserved for obstruction or fistula formation. A patient is described who developed small bowel obstruction due to an adenocarcinoma of the ileum after over twenty years of medical therapy for Crohn's disease, originally diagnosed at a laparotomy for acute abdominal pain. The possibility of malignancy in such long-standing disease should be considered.