title: Duodenal tumors. Four case reports.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Reporting our experience in the treatment of duodenal neoplasms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Management and treatment of four patients presenting a duodenal neoplasm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three out of four patients died after surgery for dehiscence and/or bleeding. One, who underwent palliative bypass, died after four months from unknown causes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Duodenal neoplasms are rare and their diagnosis is difficult and late. In literature, there is no standardized management of this kind of neoplasm; the commonest surgical approaches are pancreaticoduodenectomy, segmental duodenal resection and palliative operations. The surgical choice is based on site and stage, both in Literature than in our experience. Regardless of the surgical decision, the patients have a poor outcome because of an advanced stage at diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It can be asserted that duodenal neoplasia offers many diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. This may be due to its rarity, which does not allow the definition of a standard course of treatment, resulting in the inability to have a unique diagnostic and therapeutic approach. There is often a late diagnosis and the need to perform emergency surgery. Therefore prognosis is greatly aggravated by the high incidence of postoperative complications, in part due to the urgency in which the surgeries are carried out.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Senescende
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scipioni
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Bella
authors.forename: Vinno
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Savelli
authors.forename: Anton Ferdinando
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Carli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004379:Duodenal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male