[Clinicopathologic feature of esophageal submucosal tumors treated by surgical approach]

Submucosal tumors of the esophagus are rare lesions among all esophageal neoplasms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic features of esophageal submucosal tumors treated by surgical approach.

We analyzed the clinicopathologic and endoscopic ultrasonographic features of 18 esophageal submucosal tumors which were treated by surgical approach at Boramae Medical Center and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from January 2005 to June 2012.

The mean age was 48.9 years old and male to female ratio was 2.6 : 1. Asymptomatic patients were most common (77.8%). In endoscopic ultrasonographic finding, the majority tumor arouse in the middle (55.6%) and lower (44.4%) esophagus, and appeared as hypoechoic lesion (72.2%) in the 4th layer (83.3%). The most common indication for surgical approach was unclear biological behavior of the tumor. Minimally-invasive technique using thoracoscopy was applied for the enucleation (83.3%). The mean diameter of the tumor was 5.4 cm, and the final diagnosis was leiomyoma (89.9%) and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (11.1%).

Leiomyoma was the most common submucosal tumor in esophagus. However, endoscopic ultrasonography was not able to differentiate between leiomyoma and gastrointesinal stromal tumor. For more accurate diagnosis and treatment, minimally-invasive approaches may be suitable for the surgical enucleation of indicated esophageal submucosal tumor.