Incidental Meckel’s Diverticulum With Neuroendocrine Tumor

Meckel’s diverticulum (MD), the most common congenital disease of the small bowel, commonly presents with symptoms of painless rectal bleeding and intestinal obstruction. The treatment of symptomatic MD involves resection of the lesion regardless of patient age; however, the excision of asymptomatic and incidentally identified MDs in adults remain controversial. On one hand, the complications arising from MDs decrease with age, leading to a lower benefit than risk ratio with prophylactic resection. On the other hand, malignancies, such as neuroendocrine tumors, may arise over time from untreated MDs. This can lead to poor prognostic complications, such as liver or lymph node metastases. In this case report, we describe an incidental Meckel’s diverticulum discovered during an exploratory laparotomy for acute sigmoid diverticulitis in an adult male. Later biopsy findings discovered the lesion to contain a grade 1 neuroendocrine tumor. Based on our literature review findings, resection of the incidental Meckel's diverticulum was a reasonable approach given the low complication risks of the procedure and the possibility of malignant transformation and progression.