Abstract

Insulinoma is the most frequent endocrine tumor of the pancreas and the first of the endocrine-secreting tumor of the gut to be recognized by Nicholls in 1902. Recurrent episodes of hypoglycemia is the main cause of the symptoms and signs which were sweating, pallor, dizziness, habitual change, convulsion and coma. In 1935, Whipple and Frants were described so-called “Whipple's triad”: the patient's symptoms occur with fasting or exercise; at the time of symptoms, the serum glucose in 50mg/dl or less; and the symptoms are relieved by the administration of glucose. While these criteria were timely, they proved to be rather nonspecific and may be found in other conditions that result in fasting hypoglycemia. We experienced a 44-year-old female patient who had repeated attacks of convulsion, unconsciousness and coma for 3 years. Although she has been treated with anticonvulsant, the symptoms and signs were not disappeared. At the time of administration, she was a full coma state due to hypoglycemia and was dramatically reversed by intravenous administration of the glucose solution. The preoperative test such as provocative test, abdominal CT and celiac angiography revealed insulinoma and after enucleation the pathologic diagnosis was the same. We like to report an adult female patient with insulinoma and the review of literatures briefly.