Occurrence of Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura Following Enucleation of a Neuroendocrine Tumor of the Head of the Pancreas

Neuroendocrine tumors are growths occurring in various organs including the pancreas which contain endocrine tissue. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are rare in occurrence with an incidence of <1 per 100,000 individuals. But the incidence is rising and the said tumors are becoming more common in the world. Herein we report a case of a 49-year-old female with a background history of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus for 7 years, dyslipidemia, and bronchial asthma for 19 years on regular inhaler therapy presenting with a history of back pain for 3 months duration. With serial investigations, she was found to have a neuroendocrine tumor involving the head of the pancreas with no local infiltration and distant metastases. Whipple’s procedure was performed after which she developed thrombocytopenia from post-operative day 1 itself. Following this, she was diagnosed as having immune thrombocytopenic purpura and being managed with oral corticosteroids, after which she made a successful recovery from the acute condition but with multiple relapses from time to time.