Published online Sep 28, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i36.13035
Revised: March 12, 2014
Accepted: May 29, 2014
Published online: September 28, 2014
Minimally invasive surgery has become common in the surgical resection of gastrointestinal submucosal tumors (SMTs). The purpose of this article is to review recent trends in minimally invasive surgery for gastric SMTs. Although laparoscopic resection has been main stream of minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal SMTs, recent advances in endoscopic procedures now provide various treatment modalities for gastric SMTs. Moreover, investigators have developed several hybrid techniques that include the advantages of both laparoscopic and endoscopic procedure. In addition, several types of reduced port surgeries, modification of conventional laparoscopic procedures, have been recently applied to the surgical resection of SMTs. Meanwhile, robotic surgery for SMTs requires further evidence and improvement.
Core tip: Minimally invasive surgery has become common in surgical resection of gastrointestinal submucosal tumors (SMTs). Although laparoscopic resection has been the main stream of minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal SMTs, recent advance in endoscopic procedures also provide various modalities of treatment for gastric SMTs. Moreover, investigators developed several hybrid techniques, which include the advatages of the laparoscopic and endoscopic procedure. Additionally, reduced port surgeries, which is modified from the conventional laparoscopic procedures, have been recently applied to the surgical resection of SMTs. Meanwhile, the application of a robotic surgeries to the treatment of SMTs still request more evidence and improvement.