Giant mass of the small bowel: diagnosis and treatment (a case report and literature review)

The giant masses of the small intestine have the problem of diagnosis of the etiologies and therefore the therapeutic management because of the endoscopic examination limitation and then diagnostic delay. They can be benigns or malignants, mucosal or mesenchymal tumors. The clinical symptoms of GISTs vary from mild to severe, and complications include vague abdominal pain, hematemesis, and intestinal obstruction. Computed tomography is the key exam for diagnosis, extension assessment and monitoring. The early diagnosis of small intestine gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) is difficult. Hereby we present a 36-year-old male patient who presented a giant mass of the small intestine of 25 cm of the size without metastases or any sign of tumor spread. The aim of this case study is to notify the difficulties encountered to set up the etiology of giant masses of small intestine and the contradiction of our case with literature which emphasizes on the presence of metastasis when GISTS are more than 10 cm of size.