Spontaneous Small Bowel Perforations in Patients Receiving Radiotherapy or Chemotherapy

Gastroduodenal perforations are known to occur due to various causes. However, such problems involving small bowel and manifesting spontaneously, especially in a head and neck cancer patient, undergoing chemoradiation has never been described in the literature. We report three cases of head and neck cancer that were undergoing treatment (one case curative and two cases palliative), during which small bowel perforation manifested requiring urgent surgical intervention. We seek to highlight this problem, so as to ascertain the possible mechanisms of its causation, identify a group of patients at risk, evolve possible preventive strategies and facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment.