PRIMARY NEOPLASMS OF SMALL BOWEL

The treatment of thirty-one malignant and eleven benign neoplasms of the small intestine is reported. The most common symptom was abdominal pain followed by vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, constipation, and gastrointestinal bleeding. In four cases small bowel perforated. Intestinal obstruction occurred in 31 per cent of patients. Preoperative diagnosis was made in 19 per cent of patients. All eleven patients with benign neoplasms were curatively treated by resection and primary anastomosis. Eighteen of the thirty-one patients with malignant tumors had curative resection, five had palliative resection, and eight had laparotomy and biopsy only. The most common benign tumor was leiomyoma. The most common malignant tumor was lymphoma (67 per cent) followed by adenocarcinoma (16 per cent), carcinoid (10 per cent), and leiomyosarcoma (3 per cent). Twenty-four patients were available for follow up; thirteen remain alive and eleven died, seven within one year and four within two years. © 1978.