CASE REPORT article

Front. Surg.

Sec. Visceral Surgery

Small intestine intussusception causing intestinal obstruction secondary to left pinna melanoma metastases: A case report

  • 1. Corporacion Hospitalaria Juan Ciudad - Mederi, Bogotá, Colombia

  • 2. Rosario University, Bogotá, Colombia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Abstract

We present the case of a 68-year-old patient with previous history of stage four malignant ulcerated nodular melanoma originated in the left pinna with pulmonary metastasis, who was admitted to the emergency department with an initial clinical suspicion of intestinal obstruction, confirmed by computed tomography. He underwent exploratory laparotomy, which revealed multiple small lesions in the small intestine suggestive of malignancy, causing distal jejunal intussusception conditioning the obstruction. The patient required resection of the affected bowel segment and subsequent intestinal anastomosis, with histopathological samples confirming melanoma metastases. The patient coursed with an adequate postoperative evolution and is now in a systemic oncology management plan. This case study reports an infrequent presentation of left pinna melanoma intestinal metastases presenting with small bowel obstruction and successful surgical management given to the patient in order to further broaden knowledge on this subject.

Summary

Keywords

gastrointestinal tumour, Intestinal Obstruction, Intestinal resection and anastomosis, Melanoma, Metastatic Melanoma

Received

19 May 2026

Accepted

17 August 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Turizo Farias, Baquero, Moreno-Martinez, Lesmes, Molano Rodriguez, Rueda and Van-Londoño. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Isabella Van-Londoño

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Outline

Share article

Article metrics