An elderly patient with bleeding from the alimentary tract caused by aberrant pancreas of the small intestine

Abstract

A 71-year-old woman was admitted to hospital because of malaise and blood stool. Laboratory findings consistently showed anemia (Hb 9.2g/dl) and occult blood in the stool. Although barium series and endoscopy of the upper and lower intestinal tructs were carried out, there was no evidence of bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract. 99mTcO4/- scintigraphy, which was performed to exclude bleeding from Meckel's diverticulum, also did not locate a significant lesion. Angiographic imaging of the superior mesenteric arteries (SMA) was performed to exclude lesions such as small intestine tumors with extraluminal growth and vascular abnormalities such as A-V malformation and it revealed the round encasement of arteries in the peripheral SMA region, strongly suggestive of a small intestine tumor. Surgery was performed and an extraluminally protruding tumor was found in the small intestine. The excised tumor was 4 x 3 x 3.5 cm in size, are was diagnosed histologically as aberrant pancreas. The postoperative laboratory findings showed that the anemia had improved and occult blood was not detected in the stools. Although aberrant pancreas of the small intestine is a common benign tumor, it is a very unusual cause of bleeding from the alimentary tract.