Extra-gastric Cyst Lesions Mimicking Gastric Submucosal Tumor

Gastric cancer remains still the most frequent type of cancer despite its declining incidence in Korea. As a result of the health promotion policy of the Korean government and increase in concern for individuals’ health, screening endoscopy for detecting early gastric cancer and general physical exams have become widespread. Thereby, the incidental detection of gastric submucosal tumors (SMTs) are now occasionally diagnosed by screening endoscopy. Since endoscopic examination gives little information on SMTs, a variety of studies have been conducted to determine the etiology of SMTs and to distinguish them from extra-luminal compressive lesions. Here, we report one clinical case of cavernous hemangioma on the left lateral section of the liver and one case of omental cyst, which was preoperatively mistaken as gastric SMT. (J Korean Surg Soc 2009;77:207-210)