Gastric leiomyoblastoma: report of three cases.

Leiomyoblastoma is a rare smooth muscle tumor characterized by epithelioid cells with clear cytoplasms and an unknown biological behaviour. Since pre-operative diagnosis is difficult, the optimum strategy during the operation could be determined only by having a thorough knowledge about it beforehand. Leiomyoblastoma can be exogastric, intramural or endogastric. In the mostly benign exogastric leiomyoblastomas, total excision with resection of full thickness of gastric wall around the tumor is appropriate. Partial or total gastrectomy should be performed for intramural or endogastric tumors. We report one exogastric and two intramural gastric leiomyoblastoma cases treated in our hospital.