Pancreatic somatostatinoma presenting with chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction syndrome.
A case of pancreatic somatostatinoma in a patient with long-standing symptoms of intestinal pseudo-obstruction is reported. Diagnosis was made incidentally following an exploratory laparotomy for an episode of acute intestinal obstruction. After surgical excision of the endocrine neoplastic tissue there was a decrease in plasma somatostatin levels, associated with a striking improvement of symptoms related to gut motility dysfunction. Delayed intestinal transit and gastric emptying and impaired gallbladder contraction persisted after surgery during a follow-up of 9 years in association with a positive calcium-pentagastrin test, suggestive of residual tumoral somatostatin secretion. This case report shows that a chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction syndrome can be associated with a somatostatin-producing endocrine neoplasm and confirms the clinical heterogeneity of somatostatinoma patients.
Vezzadini
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Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Gastroenterologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Italy.
Toni
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Vezzadini
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