Insulinoma clinically misdiagnosed as vertebrobasilar insufficiency in an obese patient with recurrent episodes of loss of consciousness

摘要

Insulinoma is a rare pancreatic tumor that was first described at autopsy in 1902 by Nicholls. It was later associated with insulin secretion, when Mayo resected the first case of insulinoma in 1927 and proved experimentally that the injection of tumor extracts could determine hypoglycemia in rabbits [1-3]. The incidence of insulinoma is about 1-4 cases per 1 million persons yearly; it occurs, throughout the pancreas, with a male/female ratio of 1:1.5 [1,2,4,5]. in this letter, we present a benign insulinoma and its differential diagnosis.