The accumulating appreciation of endoscopic submucosal dissection in the treatment of gastrointestinal neoplasms: preliminary experience in local eastern China.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), an emerging technique originated from Japan, has been introduced into China in recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ESD in the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) neoplasms. METHODOLOGY: Early GI neoplasms (n=41) in 40 patients from local Eastern China were treated with ESD at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and followed-up from January 2009 to December 2011. Postoperative pathology, complications and therapeutic outcomes were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Mean size of the resected lesions was 2.2±0.81cm (1.2-6.0cm) and mean operation time was 77±28 minutes (20-150 minutes). The rates for successful resection, en bloc resection and complications were 90.2% (37/41), 83.8% (31/37) and 9.8% (4/41), respectively. The postoperative pathology showed 4 cases of early esophageal cancer, 6 of early gastric cancer or high-grade intraepithelial neoplastic changes, 5 of rectal laterally spreading tumor, 5 of esophageal or gastric leiomyoma, 2 of gastric heterotopic pancreas, and 18 of esophageal and gastric flat lesions with low-grade intraepithelial neoplastic changes. Tumor residue or recurrence was not been detected in all 40 patients during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: According to our experience in local Eastern China, ESD is a feasible technique for the treatment of GI neoplasms. Even though it has promising resection rate and acceptable complication rate, the indication of ESD should be selected strictly and the operators need to be well-trained.