[Preoperative diagnosis of carcinoid of the terminal ileum in the absence of carcinoid syndrome].

Carcinoid of the small intestine, usually found in the terminal ileum, presents a diagnostic challenge when the classic clinical and laboratory findings are absent. The commonest symptom, marked abdominal pain due to intussusception, may arouse suspicion of carcinoid. The precise preoperative diagnosis in the absence of the classic syndrome is impossible and the only way to diagnose it is by colonoscopic biopsy of the terminal ileum. The case described illustrates such a preoperative diagnosis in a 59-year-old woman with severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and weight loss. X-ray studies aroused suspicion of tumor intussusception as the cause of the intestinal obstruction. Colonoscopic biopsy revealed the presence of a carcinoid tumor. However, there had been no symptoms of the carcinoid syndrome, nor was there increased urinary 5-hydroxy indoleacetic acid. On operation the tumor was found to be disseminated and unresectable, so surgical intervention was limited to palliative ileo-transversostomy.