[Gastric leiomyoma. Diagnostic and surgical problems]

The Authors report their three year experience with five patients suffering from gastric leiomyoma, each with different anatomical and clinical characteristics. The Authors have performed a research of the different diagnostics, clinical and therapeutic problems of these rare tumors that sometimes are asymptomatic in spite of the large size they reach, but more frequently they present with haemorrhagic symptoms which tend to point to other more frequent pathological conditions. Diagnosis can only be suspected, but cannot be reached without a histological examination, also if the classifications of these tumors have been argument of many changes, particularly by the light of the recent diagnostics possibilities offered by ultrastructural and immunohistochemical examination.