Fifteen patients with rectal carcinoid tumors were treated from 1975 to 1991. Before admision, nine patients (60%) had been misdiagnosed as polyps ,hemorrhoids or proctitis. Diagnosis may be delayed because of failure to recognize their charasteristics and by the negligeuce of doing digital examination or proctoscopy. Some aspects of the management of these tumors remain controversial. However, present-day treatment programs call for radical cancer resections only for lesions 2cm in diameter or larger, and local resections for all others. In reviewing this series of cases and other studies, we advocate that both the size of the lesion and the depth of tumor invasion should be taken as the criteria of surgical managements. If the tumor is 2cm in diameter, or smaller than that, local resection can be performed, but whenever the nuscularis propria is invaded, radical resection should be performed. Radical resection is bly indicated for tumors larger than 2cm.