[Diagnosis and therapy of leiomyoma of the upper gastrointestinal tract].

Leiomyoma of the upper gastrointestinal tract is a "soft tissue tumor" and is a rare and benign lesion. The incidence of leiomyoma in the upper G-I tract is 4% of all tumors of the esophagus and 1% of the stomach. However it is difficult to differentiate leiomyoma from leiomyoblastoma and malignant leiomyosarcoma. For this reason some surgeons prefer the resection of the tumor to enucleation. Between 1984 and 1994, 24 patients with leiomyoma were treated at the Department of Surgery of the University Charité (esophagus n = 4, stomach n = 18, ileum n = 2) by local enucleation/excision in 11 cases and by wide resection of the tumor in 13 cases. In the further follow-up (after 36-84 months) there was no lethality or local recurrence.