Multifocal neuroendocrine tumour of the small bowel presenting as an incarcerated incisional hernia: a surgical challenge in a high-risk patient

Abstract

Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) of the small bowel present significant clinical challenges, such as their rate of metastasis at initial presentation, common multifocality and understaging even with gold standard imaging. Here, we present a case of a high-risk surgical patient with a complex medical history initially presenting as an acute abdomen due to an incarcerated incisional hernia. He was found at emergency laparotomy to have three small NET deposits in a 30-cm segment of incarcerated ileum which was resected. Postoperative morphological and functional imaging and biochemical markers were unremarkable, but due to clinical suspicion for undetected residual tumour bulk given the non-systematic palpation of the entire small bowel at initial operation, underwent re-operation where a further 70 cm of ileum was found to harbour multiple tumour deposits (n = 25) and was resected. There was no surgical morbidity and the patient remains tumour-free at 9-month follow-up.