eMedicine Specialties > General Surgery > Abdomen

Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine: Treatment & Medication

Author: Shawn M Terry, MD, FACS, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Penn State University College of Medicine; Consulting Staff, Department of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, York Hospital
Coauthor(s): Thomas Santora, MD, Associate Professor, Director of Regional Resource Trauma Center, Department of Surgery, Temple University Medical Center
Contributor Information and Disclosures

Updated: Jul 11, 2008

Treatment

Medical Care

  • Strict medical management currently has no role in benign small bowel tumors.
  • Patients with suggestive abdominal pain, particularly if associated with evidence of anemia or intermittent obstruction, should be referred for surgical evaluation and management.
  • Asymptomatic evidence of small bowel mass, stricture, or intermittent obstruction discovered on incidental radiographs should be referred for surgical evaluation.

Surgical Care

  • Surgical excision of small bowel tumors remains the recommended therapy. Exploratory laparotomy with excision of the lesion provides the safest and most direct method for lesion identification and treatment.
  • Tumors discovered incidentally at laparotomy should be removed to prevent future symptom development and secondary complications.
  • Both segmental resection and enterotomy/polypectomy have been used for lesion removal. If the pathology cannot be established at the time of resection, full segmental resection with adequate margins is recommended.
  • Literature confirms an excellent prognosis for tumors resected prior to tumor perforation or onset of massive GI hemorrhage.

Consultations

  • Consultations with either gastroenterology or general surgery may be helpful when abdominal pain of unknown origin or suspicion of small bowel pathology exists so that the patient may benefit from full endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, or intraoperative push enteroscopy.

Diet

  • No special dietary recommendations are applicable.

Activity

  • Activity is generally as tolerated for the patient.
  • If the patient requires operative exploration for a benign small bowel tumor, the postoperative activity regimen should follow the recommendation of the operative surgeon.

More on Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine

Overview: Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine
Differential Diagnoses & Workup: Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine
Treatment & Medication: Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine
Follow-up: Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine
Multimedia: Benign Neoplasm of the Small Intestine
References
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References

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Further Reading

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Keywords

small bowel polyps, small bowel hemangioma, small bowel lipoma, small bowel, leiomyoma, hyperplastic polyps, adenomas, gut stromal tumors, GI stromal tumors, gastrointestinal tumor, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, duodenal tumor, jejunal tumor, ileal tumor, polyposis syndrome, intraluminal lesions, serosal lesions, bowel obstruction, bowel volvulus, small bowel lesions, GI lesions, gastrointestinal lesions, GI hamartomas, gastrointestinal hamartomas, polyps

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Contributor Information and Disclosures

Author

Shawn M Terry, MD, FACS, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Penn State University College of Medicine; Consulting Staff, Department of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, York Hospital
Shawn M Terry, MD, FACS is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Pennsylvania Medical Society, and Society of Critical Care Medicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Thomas Santora, MD, Associate Professor, Director of Regional Resource Trauma Center, Department of Surgery, Temple University Medical Center
Thomas Santora, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, American College of Surgeons, American Trauma Society, Association for Academic Surgery, and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Pharmacy Editor

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD, Senior Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Managing Editor

Amy L Friedman, MD, Professor of Surgery, Director of Transplantation, State University of New York Upstate Medical University College of Medicine, Syracuse
Amy L Friedman, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, American Medical Women's Association, American Society for Artificial Internal Organs, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Society of Transplantation, Association for Academic Surgery, Association of Women Surgeons, International College of Surgeons, International Liver Transplantation Society, New York Academy of Sciences, Pennsylvania Medical Society, Philadelphia County Medical Society, Society of Critical Care Medicine, and Transplantation Society
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

CME Editor

Paolo Zamboni, MD, Professor of Surgery, Chief of Day Surgery Unit, Chair of Vascular Diseases Center, University of Ferrara, Italy
Paolo Zamboni, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Venous Forum and New York Academy of Sciences
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

John Geibel, MD, DSc, MA, Vice Chairman, Professor, Department of Surgery, Section of Gastrointestinal Medicine and Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine; Director of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Yale-New Haven Hospital
John Geibel, MD, DSc, MA is a member of the following medical societies: American Gastroenterological Association, American Physiological Society, American Society of Nephrology, Association for Academic Surgery, International Society of Nephrology, New York Academy of Sciences, and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract
Disclosure: AMGEN Royalty Other; AstraZeneca Grant/research funds Other

 
 
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