Abstract
A 20–year–old woman presented at the emergency department with acute right lower abdominal pain. Physical and laboratory examinations indicated acute appendicitis with periappendiceal infiltrate, and the patient underwent appendectomy. However, histological examination of the appendectomy specimen revealed carcinoid tumor with acute inflammation. Therefore, the patient underwent laparoscopic radical ileocecal resection with lymph node dissection two months after the appendectomy. Pathological examination of the resected specimen did not show any tumor in the ileocecal region, but massive metastases in 2 of 35 analyzed lymph nodes were observed.
This case evidences that carcinoid tumor of the appendix can easily be missed without histological examination. Routine careful pathological examination of appendectomy specimens is warranted because further surgery and chemotherapy may be necessary.
