Two cases of symptomatic submucosal lipomas of the large intestine are described. One occurred in a patient with familial multiple lipomatosis causing an intussusception and intermittent obstruction. The other caused subacute obstruction and rectal bleeding and was thought to represent a carcinoma. These two cases closely resemble those few patients with symptomatic lipomas of the colon that make up a small subgroup (6 percent) of a series of 91 patients with this diagnosis managed surgically at the Mayo Clinic between the years 1976 to 1985. The majority of patients in this series had lipomas that were entirely incidental findings usually associated with more significant pathology that dictated the operative procedures undertaken. Lipomas themselves may be managed by local excision only although segmental resection may be necessary in isolated cases.