Methods: The medical records of 13 patients (8 males, 5 females; mean age 45.9 years; range, 30 to 69 years) who underwent open or thoracoscopic surgery for an esophageal leiomyoma between April 2007 and June 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were evaluated with regard to age, sex, presenting symptoms, duration of symptoms, size and localization of tumors, diagnostic methods, surgical methods, conversion to open surgery, morbidity and mortality, discharge time, and follow-up period.

Results: Of the patients, four were operated via thoracotomy and nine via video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Enucleation was successfully completed with thoracoscopy in five patients. Four patients required conversion to thoracotomy. In the early postoperative period, two of these four patients developed complications and underwent re-thoracotomy. A solitary leiomyoma was detected in all, but one patient (multiple). The mean size of the tumors was 68.4 mm. Complications were seen in only one patient during follow-up and no recurrence was observed in any patient.

Conclusion: Our study results indicate that thoracoscopic enucleation of esophageal leiomyoma is a safe, feasible, and effective technique in selected patients and conversion to open surgery can be easily done for any reason during the procedure.