A patient presenting with acute abdomen due to metastatic small bowel melanoma: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Malignant tumors of the small bowel are rare. Melanoma of the small intestine is in most cases metastatic from a primary skin lesion. Perforation of small bowel melanoma is an extremely rare entity. To the best of our knowledge this is the fifth case published to date. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a rare case of acute abdomen due to perforated metastatic small bowel melanoma in a 38-year-old Caucasian man. CONCLUSIONS: In the majority of cases small bowel melanoma represents metastasis from cutaneous sites. Although rare, the possibility of abdominal metastatic melanoma presenting with the clinical picture of acute abdomen must be always considered by the operating surgeon in patients with a history of primary cutaneous malignant lesion.