To investigate the pathological characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of rectal carcinoid tumors, 26 cases, which had been diagnosed and treated in our hospital from 1987 to 1997, were retrospectively analysed. The rectoscopic examination were taken in all 26 patients and final diagnosis were made by pathological examination, among them, 19 cases were treated with local resection or expensively local resection, 7 cases with radical operation because the diameter of tumor was beyond 2 cm. These patiests were followed up 1-10 years with 5 patients died. The authors consider that rectoscopic examination and biopsy are important method to diagnose rectal carcinoid tumors preoperatively, in addition, for suspicious case, argentation and immunohistochemistry staining should be further made besides routine HE staining. The operative treatment is the best therapy to this kind of disease, the choice of operative mode must be made according to the size, infiltration of the tumor, the condition of infiltrated lymph node and hepatic metastasis.