Treatment of duodenal carcinoid by strip biopsy.

In a 70-year-old man with diarrhea and weight loss, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed a 0.4-cm nodular lesion at the anterior duodenal bulb with a fissure at the tip of the lesion. The histologic diagnosis of the biopsied specimen revealed a duodenal carcinoid confined to the submucosa. We used strip biopsy to resect the lesion. After resection, diarrhea subsided and weight was increased. Strip biopsy may be a safe and effective choice for management of a duodenal carcinoid if it is < 1 cm in size or confined to the submucosa, especially when mitoses are absent.