Vater's papilla and periampullary area villous adenoma: personal experience about nine cases and review of the literature.

Villous tumor of the duodenum is a rare disease. The authors report their personal experience from 1987 to 1993 with nine cases of duodenal villous tumors. The treatment was pancreatoduodenectomy in four cases, segmental resection of the duodenum in two cases and submucosal excision in three cases. The authors review the literature of the last 15 years in which only 241 cases of duodenal villous tumors are reported; in this review the clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic characteristics of the disease are analyzed. This malignancy presents peculiar characteristics for histologic diagnosis and pathology classification. For this reason, even surgical treatment deserves careful reflection to guarantee a curative procedure and to formulate a positive prognosis.