Abstract
Small bowel tumors are rare entities that often present with nonspecific symptoms and accounts for only 2 to 6% of all the gastrointestinal cancers. The patient may remain asymptomatic or present with vague symptoms like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fatigue or weakness. However, at times they can present with complications like obstruction, perforation, intussusception, severe pain, and bleeding. This bleeding may manifest as persistent melena with progressive weakness, which in an elderly person can raise the suspicion of malignancy. Because of its location, a pre-operative diagnosis and biopsy is often difficult to obtain and so, surgical intervention is always required. Here we report the case of an elderly man who presented with weakness and melena and was suspected to be a case of malignancy, but post operatively the cause was found to be asmall intestinal submucosal lipoma.
Key Words: Melena, lipoma, capsular endoscopy, malignancy.
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Corresponding Author
Richa Chauhan
Sr. Consultant Oncologist, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Patna
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Mob. No: 8002226696