Malignant melanoma is the most common metastatic lesion of the intestine. Surgical consultation is often sought when bowel metastases become symptomatic. To determine the role of surgical intervention in such cases, a database of 6,000 melanoma patients was examined, and a subset of 102 patients with small intestinal or colonic metastases were identified premortem. Common presenting features included abdominal pain with or without acute symptoms (29% of patients), obstruction or intussusception (27%), and bleeding (26%). The presence of metastatic lesions was confirmed by surgical exploration in 80% of patients, endoscopic procedures in 11%, and percutaneous biopsy in 5%. Cure was achieved in 36 patients by resection, which resulted in the removal of all demonstrable disease. The subsequent mean length of survival in this group was 31 +/- 5.2 months. Forty-two patients underwent palliative enteric bypass or debulking procedures, and 24 patients received either chemotherapy alone or symptomatic treatment. The average length of survival in these latter groups was 9.6 +/- 15.9 and 9.6 +/- 3.6 months, respectively, both of which were significantly less than the duration of survival in the complete resection group (p less than 0.05). Small or large bowel resection for bleeding or obstruction and enteric bypass for obstruction provided symptomatic relief in 92% of patients thus treated. There was no operative mortality in the series. An aggressive search for resectable disease in patients with symptoms secondary to intestinal metastases from malignant melanoma should be performed. Surgical intervention may then allow the palliation of pain, obstruction, and bleeding. Survival can be significantly prolonged if it is possible to remove all demonstrable disease.