Intramural lipoma of the esophagus

Lipomas of the gastrointestinal tract are rare, and those of the esophagus are extremely rare. Indeed, fewer than 20 resected cases of esophageal lipoma have been reported in the literature. In the current case, a 71-year-old man presented with a 4-month history of a slight swallowing disturbance in the upper chest. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a submucosal space-occupying mass, with normal mucosa, in the upper third of the thoracic esophagus; the mass was yellowish in color, soft in consistency, and about 3.5 x 3.0 cm in diameter. The patient underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic enucleation of the submucosal esophageal tumor, which pathologically, was proved to be a lipoma.