From the Research
The most common presentation of benign small bowel tumors is gastrointestinal bleeding, which can be either occult or overt, as well as abdominal pain, often intermittent and vague in nature, as reported in the study by 1.
Key Findings
- The study by 1 highlights that small bowel tumors are rare and account for approximately 3% of all gastrointestinal tumors in the United States.
- The incidence of small bowel neoplasms is rising, with a notable increase in small bowel carcinoid tumors, which may be attributed to improved imaging techniques and increased identification of small bowel lesions during cross-sectional imaging studies performed for other indications.
- Diagnosis of small bowel tumors is challenging due to nonspecific clinical manifestations, rare occurrence, and low index of clinical suspicion.
- The study by 2 found that patients with benign tumors were more commonly presented with gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
- The most common types of benign small bowel tumors include adenomas, leiomyomas, lipomas, and hamartomas, as mentioned in the study by 3.
Diagnosis and Management
- Diagnosis typically requires specialized imaging such as CT enterography, capsule endoscopy, or double-balloon enteroscopy, as conventional endoscopy cannot reach most of the small intestine, as noted in the study by 1.
- Understanding the imaging features of small bowel neoplasms is crucial to improve the radiologist's ability to diagnose and characterize small bowel neoplasms.
- Many benign small bowel tumors remain asymptomatic and are discovered incidentally during imaging studies or endoscopy performed for other reasons, as reported in the study by 1.
Important Considerations
- The study by 4 emphasizes the importance of recognizing patients at higher risk of small bowel neoplasia.
- The study by 5 outlines the incidence, presentation, diagnosis, and management of small bowel tumors, highlighting the diagnostic challenge posed by these tumors.
- The study by 3 discusses the pathology and management of small bowel tumors, including the use of operative resection, oncological agents, and somatostatin analogues.