Abstract Background Leiomyomas of esophagus, although rare, are the most frequent benign tumors of esophagus. Aim of this study is the presentation of 7 patients with esophageal leiomyomas who underwent surgical treatment during a 9-year period. Methods Epidemiological data (sex, age), the presenting symptoms, diagnostic examinations, tumor location, histopathological findings and the safety and efficacy of surgical resection are analyzed and assessed. Results 5 men and 2 women with mean age of 56.9 years were operated. In 3 cases the tumor was located at the lower esophagus, while in the other 4 cases, the leiomyoma was found at the median third of esophagus. 4 patients had severe symptoms related to the leiomyoma, such as dysphagia and epigastric pain. All patients underwent a right postolateral thoracotomy with enucleation of the lesion. None of them received resection of part of the esophagus. The mean diameter of the resected tumors was 4.3 cm. The dimensions of leiomyomas were immediately associated with the symptoms. In no case was detected malignancy or recurrence. All patients were relieved from their symptoms, while postoperative morbidity and mortality did not occur. Conclusions Esophageal leiomyoma is a benign tumor, which causes symptoms only if its size becomes large. Surgical enucleation is considered to be safe and effective, without complications.</p

A Chak

A Punpale

Athanassios Kleontas

Christos Asteriou

CJ Mutrie

Dimitrios Konstantinou

Georgios Zafiriou

I Waxman

Konstantinos Setzis

L Bonavina

L Palazzo

M Miettinen

Miltiadis Lalountas

MS Levine

Nikolaos Barbetakis

T Rosch

Y Wang

English

PubMed

Abstract Background Leiomyomas of esophagus, although rare, are the most frequent benign tumors of esophagus. Aim of this study is the presentation of 7 patients with esophageal leiomyomas who underwent surgical treatment during a 9-year period. Methods Epidemiological data (sex, age), the presenting symptoms, diagnostic examinations, tumor location, histopathological findings and the safety and efficacy of surgical resection are analyzed and assessed. Results 5 men and 2 women with mean age of 56.9 years were operated. In 3 cases the tumor was located at the lower esophagus, while in the other 4 cases, the leiomyoma was found at the median third of esophagus. 4 patients had severe symptoms related to the leiomyoma, such as dysphagia and epigastric pain. All patients underwent a right postolateral thoracotomy with enucleation of the lesion. None of them received resection of part of the esophagus. The mean diameter of the resected tumors was 4.3 cm. The dimensions of leiomyomas were immediately associated with the symptoms. In no case was detected malignancy or recurrence. All patients were relieved from their symptoms, while postoperative morbidity and mortality did not occur. Conclusions Esophageal leiomyoma is a benign tumor, which causes symptoms only if its size becomes large. Surgical enucleation is considered to be safe and effective, without complications.</p

Zafiriou Georgios

Setzis Konstantinos

Kleontas Athanassios

Lalountas Miltiadis

Konstantinou Dimitrios

Asteriou Christos

Barbetakis Nikolaos

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World Journal of Surgical Oncology

Nine years experience in surgical approach of leiomyomatosis of esophagus

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BioMed CentralWorld Journal of Surgical Oncology
ssOpen AcceResearch
Nine years experience in surgical approach of leiomyomatosis of 
esophagus
Christos Asteriou*1, Dimitrios Konstantinou2, Miltiadis Lalountas3, 
Athanassios Kleontas1, Konstantinos Setzis4, Georgios Zafiriou4 and 
Nikolaos Barbetakis1
Address: 1CardioThoracic Surgery Department, Theagenio Cancer Hospital, Al. Symeonidi 2, Thessaloniki, 54007, Greece, 22nd Department of 
Chemotherapy, Theagenio Cancer Hospital, Al. Symeonidi 2, Thessaloniki, 54007, Greece, 32nd Propedeutical Department of Surgery, Aristotle 
University of Thessaloniki, Hippokratio General Hospital, Konstantinoupoleos 49, Thessaloniki, Greece and 41st Department of Surgery, 
Theagenio Cancer Hospital, Al. Symeonidi 2, Thessaloniki, 54007, Greece
Email: Christos Asteriou* - asteriouchris@yahoo.gr; Dimitrios Konstantinou - dimikon@auth.gr; 
Miltiadis Lalountas - miltiadislalountas@yahoo.gr; Athanassios Kleontas - kleontas@gmail.com; Konstantinos Setzis - kostassetzis@yahoo.gr; 
Georgios Zafiriou - giorgoszafiriou@yahoo.gr; Nikolaos Barbetakis - nibarbet@yahoo.gr
* Corresponding author    
Abstract
Background: Leiomyomas of esophagus, although rare, are the most frequent benign tumors of
esophagus. Aim of this study is the presentation of 7 patients with esophageal leiomyomas who
underwent surgical treatment during a 9-year period.
Methods: Epidemiological data (sex, age), the presenting symptoms, diagnostic examinations,
tumor location, histopathological findings and the safety and efficacy of surgical resection are
analyzed and assessed.
Results: 5 men and 2 women with mean age of 56.9 years were operated. In 3 cases the tumor
was located at the lower esophagus, while in the other 4 cases, the leiomyoma was found at the
median third of esophagus. 4 patients had severe symptoms related to the leiomyoma, such as
dysphagia and epigastric pain. All patients underwent a right postolateral thoracotomy with
enucleation of the lesion. None of them received resection of part of the esophagus. The mean
diameter of the resected tumors was 4.3 cm. The dimensions of leiomyomas were immediately
associated with the symptoms. In no case was detected malignancy or recurrence. All patients were
relieved from their symptoms, while postoperative morbidity and mortality did not occur.
Conclusions: Esophageal leiomyoma is a benign tumor, which causes symptoms only if its size
becomes large. Surgical enucleation is considered to be safe and effective, without complications.
Background
The esophageal leiomyoma is a benign tumor of the
esophagus. Other non-malignant lesions of esophagus are
hemangioma, lymphangioma, squamous papilloma,
fibrovascular polyp and granular cell myoblastoma. The
incidence of this kind of lesions is referred to be almost
1% of the esophageal neoplasms in the international lit-
erature [1]. Leiomyomas are the most common benign
Published: 23 December 2009
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:102 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-102
Received: 14 November 2009
Accepted: 23 December 2009
This article is available from: http://www.wjso.com/content/7/1/102
© 2009 Asteriou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 5
(page number not for citation purposes)
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:102 http://www.wjso.com/content/7/1/102tumors of esophagus. The main symptoms usually are
dysphagia and epigastric pain, but they are not specific for
the disease. Differential diagnosis should always include
esophageal cancer [2]. It is important for the modern car-
diothoracic surgeon to be aware of this entity. Here, a
small case series of 7 patients who were treated in our
Institute during the last 9 years is presented, with empha-
sis in diagnosis and management.
Patients and Methods
This study is a retrospective analysis of the medical records
of patients, whose diagnosis was a possible esophageal
leiomyoma. The study took place at the Theagenio Cancer
Hospital of Thessaloniki from September 2000 to Sep-
tember 2009. Seven patients were detected. The epidemi-
ological data (sex, age), presenting symptoms, diagnostic
examinations, tumor location, histopathological findings
and the safety and efficacy of the surgical resection were
analyzed. The standard examinations included preopera-
tive esophagogastroscopy, endoscopic ultrasonography
and computed tomography of the chest. Fine needle aspi-
ration was not performed in any case.
Results
Patients' group was consisted of five males and two
females. Their age ranged from 48 to 67 years (mean age:
56.9 years). The most common symptoms were dysphagia
and epigastric pain, which were present in four cases. In
addition, one patient was complaining for retrosternal
burnings. The rest of the cases had limited symptomatol-
ogy, like unspecified discomfort located at the chest or the
upper abdomen. All patients were subjected to the stand-
ard examinations, which demonstrated an esophageal
tumor with features compatible with leiomyoma. In three
cases the tumor was located at the lower third of the
esophagus, while four lesions were detected at the median
third. In all cases a right postolateral thoracotomy carried
out and myotomy of esophagus with enucleation of the
neoplasm took place. Frozen sections showed typical lei-
omyoma of esophagus. None of the patients underwent
resection of part of the organ. The mean diameter of the
resected tumors was 4.3 cm. Malignancy or recurrence was
not detected. The mean in-hospital staying was 7 days.
Complications did not occur. All patients were relieved
from their symptoms, after surgical removal of the tumor.
Postoperative follow-up did not reveal any morbidity or
mortality related to the primary diagnosis. Clinical pres-
entation, diagnostic findings and management of the
patients are summarized in table 1.
Discussion
Leiomyomas belong to benign mesenchymal tumors of
esophagus. They are the most common non-malignant
lesions of esophagus, with an incidence approaching 60%
of all benign tumors of the organ [1]. The symptoms
accompanying esophageal leiomyomas are not specific. It
seems that the size of tumor correlates with the severity of
the symptoms. Dysphagia with concomitant epigastric
pain or retrosternal burning usually appears when the
tumor's diameter becomes larger than the critical point of
4.5-5 cm [3]. Smaller leiomyomas may cause mild symp-
tomatology, like unspecified discomfort, or even may be
asymptomatic at all. In the majority of cases the lesions
are located at the distal two thirds of the esophagus. In our
small series, the distribution was almost equal in the two
aforementioned positions.
Leiomyomas can mimic cancer of esophagus. Lack of spe-
cific symptoms as well as the similarity in initial clinical
expression may cause diagnostic confusion. It is, there-
fore, obligatory the full preoperative investigation of each
patient complaining for symptoms possibly relating with
an esophageal lesion. Esophagogastroscopy combined
with endoscopic ultrasonographic evaluation of the
Table 1: Clinical presentation, diagnostic examinations' results and surgical approach.
Sex Age Symptoms EGS-EUS Diameter Treatment
 67 Dysphagia Submucosal hypoechoic tumor at 22-28 cm 5,9 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 48 Epigastric discomfort Submucosal hypoechoic nodule at 29-32 cm 2 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 51 Epigastric pain, Dysphagia Submucosal hypoechoic tumor at 23-28 cm 4,8 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 59 Epigastric discomfort Submucosal hypoechoic nodule at 22-26 cm 2,7 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 57 Dysphagia Submucosal hypoechoic tumor at 27-33 cm 5,2 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 61 Retrosternal burning, Dysphagia Submucosal hypoechoic tumor at 20-27 cm 6,5 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
 55 Epigastric discomfort Submucosal hypoechoic nodule at 29-34 cm 3,1 cm Right Thoracotomy-Enucleation
EGS: Esophagogastroscopy, EUS: Endoscopic UltrasonographyPage 2 of 5
(page number not for citation purposes)
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:102 http://www.wjso.com/content/7/1/102tumor is mandatory in order to exclude cancer of esopha-
gus from the differential diagnosis [4,5]. Leiomyoma's
typical appearance is of homogeneous and hypoechoic
lesion with clear margin (Fig 1, 2) [6-8]. Computed Tom-
ography scans of the chest ideally complete the preopera-
tive evaluation of the patients, revealing in most cases a
mass originating from esophagus without mediastinal
lymphadenopathy (Fig 3). Preoperative biopsy of the
tumor is a debating issue [9]. Our policy is not to recom-
mend it, because an esophageal leak or fistula can occur
with a risk of potential mediastinitis. Moreover, in many
cases fine needle aspiration could not provide enough
material to establish an accurate histopathological diag-
nosis. The high risk of complications in combination with
the small benefit for the patient suggests not to perform
this diagnostic procedure, although other investigators
recommend Fine Needle Biopsy via endoscopic ultra-
sonography.
Every symptomatic leiomyoma should be excised. In case
the tumor is discovered accidentally, some authors recom-
mend regular follow-up with barium swallow and endos-
copy [9]. Our policy is that a surgical removal is
recommended even in this situation, because there is
always the possibility, rarely though, of malignant trans-
formation.
Different kinds of approaches have been described
depended from the location of the tumor. In the majority
of the cases the tumor is discovered at the mean or the dis-
tal third of the esophagus. Right thoracotomy is suggested
in first case; while a left thoracoabdominal approach fits
better the second case [10]. Our experience shows that
using a right postolateral thoracotomy, excision of the
lesion is feasible in both locations. Myotomy of esopha-
gus and extramucosal enucleation of the leiomyoma is the
standard and established procedure. The external muscu-
lar layer of esophagus is incised longitudinally. Dissection
and excision of the tumor with great care not to open the
mucosa completes the surgical procedure. If mucosa is
penetrated, careful reapproximation with absorbable
sutures takes place, while closure of the muscle layers is
obligatory, in order to prevent leak. A lung or pleural flap
graft may be used in order to seal a potential leakage. In
very few cases resection of part of esophagus is described
for large tumors [2,10]. In our opinion, enucleation of the
tumor is the only indicated surgical approach of the leio-
myoma. Esophagogastrectomy remains the operation of
choice exclusively when dealing with esophageal cancer. It
is a major operation with concomitant morbidity and
mortality due to its possible severe complications.
Histopathologicaly, the tumor is composed of bland spin-
dle cells and demonstrates low to moderate cellularity.
Endoscopic view of an esophageal leiomyoma located at the median thirdFigure 1
Endoscopic view of an esophageal leiomyoma located at the median third. A submucosal lesion compressing the 
lumen of esophagus, which however is leaving intact the overlying mucosa, is demonstrated.Page 3 of 5
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World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:102 http://www.wjso.com/content/7/1/102
Page 4 of 5
(page number not for citation purposes)
Endoscopic ultrasonographic evaluation of a leiomyomaFigure 2
Endoscopic ultrasonographic evaluation of a leiomyoma. The tumor is presented as a well-demarkated, homogeneous 
and hypoechoic lesion with clear margin, originating from muscularis mucosa. In this case, its size is 2.7 × 1.7 cm. A small lymph 
node (1.07 cm) is also discovered (red arrows).
Computed Tomography of the chest revealing a large mass originating fr  median esophagus (red arrows)Figure 3
Computed Tomography of the chest revealing a 
large mass originating from median esophagus (red 
arrows).
Histopathological view of leiomyoma (H-EX100)Figure 4
Histopathological view of leiomyoma (H-EX100). The 
tumor is composed of clusters and bundles of elongated cells 
with ovoid nuclei and varying amounts of eosinophilic fibrillar 
cytoplasm.
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The cells have eosinophilic and fibrillary cytoplasm (Fig
4). Mitotic figures are rare. Spherical calcifications are also
focally present. Leiomyomas are presented typically glo-
bally positive for desmin and smooth muscle actin, while
they are negative for CD34 and CD117 (c-kit) [11]. Differ-
ential diagnosis from esophageal cancer (squamous cell
carcinoma of esophagus or adenocarcinoma of gastro-
esophageal junction) should not be a problem.
Conclusions
In conclusion, leiomyoma is a rare benign tumor of
esophagus. Correct preoperative evaluation is of great
importance in planning of the surgical excision. Enuclea-
tion of the lesion using a right postolateral thoracotomy is
the most common approach. Postoperative complications
are rare, while morbidity and mortality rates tend to be
zero universally. Patients' relief from the symptoms is the
rule and the prognosis is expected great.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
CA, DK, ML, AK, KS, and GZ took part in the care of the
patients and contributed equally in carrying out the med-
ical literature search and preparation of the manuscript.
NB participated in the care of the patients and had the
supervision of this report. All authors approved the final
manuscript.
Consent
Written informed consent was obtained from all patients
for publication of this article and accompanying images.
Copies of the written consents are available for review by
the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.
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Nine years experience in surgical approach of leiomyomatosis of esophagus

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