Myogenic Tumours of the Digestive Tract

Summary

Background.
Myogenic tumours of the digestive tract are not very frequent. Most often they are found in thestomach, less frequently in the colon and rectum. Many are symptom-free and are an incidental finding on examinationor surgery. Treatment is surgical and the type and extent depends on the type, size, site and spread of the tumour.The objective of the submitted paper is to present a group of patients and to confront the findings with those of otherauthors.Methods and Results. In the course of ten years (1992 - 1996) the authors diagnosed a myogenic tumour of thedigestive tract only in 10 patients. Seven patients were males, three females, mean age 64 years (range 46 - 89 years).The most frequent symptoms were haemorrhage into the GI tract (6x), abdominal pain (4x), palpable resistance inthe abdomen (2x), subileus (1x). Most frequently the stomach was affected (7x) and the small intestine (3x). Fromthe histological aspect the tumour was quaified as benign only 3x (site stomach, leionmyoma). Seven times thetumour was malignant (4x stomach: leiomyoblastoma, 3x small intestine: leiomyosarcoma). Five times surgery wascurative, 3x palliative, 2x only explorative.At present only three patients with a benign tumour survive.Conclusions: Myogenic tumours of the GI tract are relatively rare, preoperative diagnosis is an exception. Theclinical picture is non-pathognomic. The only effective therapeutic procedure is surgery: survival depends on thetype of tumour.

Key words:
leiomyoma, leiomyoblastoma, subileus, haemorrhage into the digestive tract, imaging methods.