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

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.