Primary mesenteric carcinoid tumor
A 73-year-old woman presented with a palpable abdominal mass which had been increased in size for 1 year. She denied any other gastrointestinal or systematic symptoms. Physical examination revealed an 8 cm sized round and movable mass without tenderness in the periumbilical area. Computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated an 8.2 × 7.3 cm sized well-defined mass with complex density located in the mesentery or adjacent proximal jejunum ().\nAt laparotomy, a well-encapsulated mass was found to be arising from the small bowel mesentery near the ligament of Treitz (). We carefully dissected and removed the mass without injury to adjacent organs. There were no abnormal findings in the other organs including the small bowel and colon.\nHistological examination showed tumor cells composed of homogenous small cells arranged in a trabecular pattern with the nucleus showing a round to oval shape, indistinct nucleoli, and coarsely granular chromatin pattern. There was no mitosis (). Immunohistochemistry showed the tumor to be positive for multiple neuroendocrine markers including synaptophysin (), CD56 (), cytokeratin (). Histopathologic examination confirmed the mass as a carcinoid tumor with a benign nature. At 11 months of follow-up, the patient was asymptomatic and recurrence free. This study had been approved by the Institutional Review Board of St. Vincent's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea (VC12ZISE0142).