ESTD vs. VATS for Upper Gastrointestinal Submucosal Tumors

Most upper gastrointestinal submucosal tumors (SMTs), especially the gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) and leiomyoma, are regarded as benign if they are less than 3cm in size. Thus, it has been suggested that patients should receive periodic endoscopic follow-up in case of gradual changes in size; however this can be stressful and troublesome for patients. Nevertheless, some of these tumors do have a malignant potential, and management by periodic endoscopic surveillance may lead to delayed diagnosis of malignancy. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the SMTs.

To date, several approaches have been used for the treatment of upper gastrointestinal SMTs, including open, thoracoscopic and laparoscopic surgery, and endoscopic approaches such as band ligation, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), and endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFR). However, the surgical approaches are invasive with a longer hospital stay and greater cost, while the endoscopic approaches were limited by technical difficulty, incomplete resections and risk of perforation.

Recently, the technique of peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) for esophageal achalasia was introduced, a procedure in which a submucosal tunnel is created to expose and dissect the circular muscle of the esophagus. Inspired by the POEM approach, we have successfully used a similar method, endoscopic submucosal tunnel dissection (ESTD), to resect SMTs in upper gastrointestinal.

However, the long-term efficacy and safety of ESTD were not determined, and there was no prospective study compared the ESTD with other conventional approaches. Therefore, we plan to conduct this prospective randomized controlled trial, aim to determine the efficacy and safety of ESTD, compared with the pneumatic dilation, in the treatment of upper gastrointestinal SMTs originating from the muscularis propria layer .