What symptoms do intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms cause?
Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms can come to clinical attention in a variety of different ways. The most common symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. The most common signs patients have when they come to medical attention include jaundice (a yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by obstruction of the bile duct), weight loss, and acute pancreatitis (see reference 4). These signs and symptoms are not specific for an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm, making it more difficult to establish a diagnosis. Doctors will therefore often order additional tests (see question 6 below). A growing number of patients are now being diagnosed before they develop symptoms (asymptomatic patients). In these cases, the lesion in the pancreas is discovered accidentally (by chance) when the patient is being scanned (x-rayed) for another reason. For example, we have seen patients who had a CT scan because they were in a car accident and the CT scan happened to include the pancreas
