Leiomyosarcoma of the Esophagus, Report of a Case

Yasuhiro Kodera, Hiroyuki Sunenaga, Yuichi Suzuki, Masataka Negita, Kenji Taniguchi, Hitoshi Inagaki, Hiroki Takeshita, Naohito Kanazumi, Hiroshi Yogo

Department of Surgery, Komaki Municipal Hospital

A 75-year-old man with dysphagia as the chief complaint was diagnosed as having esophageal leiomyosarcoma. He is the oldest patient with this disease reported in Japan. Esophagectomy was performed, and the patient has been fit and disease-free for nearly 3 years since the operation. Various surgical measures have been selected for this infrequent disease, since the precise preoperative diagnosis has not always been easily obtained, and decisionmaking during the operation based on the gross findings has often become necessary. Radical excision with extensive lymphadenectomy is not recognized as the standard treatment as in the case of esophageal carcinoma. Local recurrence, however, was observed in one of 29 patients who underwent partial esophagectomy, the treatmentmost frequently chosen for the 45 cases known, and for 3 out of the 10 patients who underwent simple excision of the tumor alone. No matter what measure is taken, long term follow up is mandatory for patients with this disease.

Key words
leiomyosarcoma of esophagus

Reprint requests
Yasuhiro Kodera Second Department of Surgery, Nagoya University, School of Medicine
65 Tsurumai-cho, Nagoya, 466 JAPAN

Accepted
June 5, 1991

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.