Case Report

A Rare Cause of Refractory Chronic Diarrhea and Cachexia: A Case Report

Abstract

VIPoma is an unusual neuroendocrine neoplasm that autonomously secretes VIP. It is associated with secretory diarrhea and electrolyte disturbances. Herein we report a case of a male patient, who was hospitalized in the Department of Endocrinology in Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia. He presented VIPoma syndrome, with hepatic metastases at diagnosis. He had a history of chronic, watery diarrhea. He was dehydrated with many electrolytic disorders as hypokalemia, hyponatremia and metabolic acidosis. Abdominal CT scan showed a heterogeneous mass in the pancreatic head with multiple hepatic lesions. A high VIP hormone level was found. Histological study of a liver biopsy revealed hepatic metastases of neuroendocrine carcinoma. The patient received analogues of somatostatin and systemic chemotherapy, with a transient symptomatic relief. Sadly the patient was lost to follow-up.

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Files
IssueVol 49 No 2 (2020) QRcode
SectionCase Report(s)
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v49i2.3110
Keywords
Neuroendocrine tumor; Somatostatin analogue; Vipoma Secretory diarrhea Tunisia
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Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
HADJ KACEM F, CHEBBI D, CHAKROUN A, CHARFI N, GHORBEL D, MNIF F, MNIF M, REKIK N, ABID M. A Rare Cause of Refractory Chronic Diarrhea and Cachexia: A Case Report. Iran J Public Health. 2020;49(2):386-388.