Digestive submucosal masses : endoscopic evaluation

The term "submucosal lesion or tumor" is often used generically to refer to any bulging lesion covered by nor- mal- or nearly normal-appearing mucosa and having a smoothly elevated contour that makes its margins less sharply demarcated than lesions that arise from the mucosa (1,2). Usually these lesions are detected inci- dentally as smooth masses on endoscopy or barium stud- ies and fortuitously discovered during the exploration of another pathology. These lesions are rare and their inci- dence at autopsy is only about 0.2 to 0.5% (3,4,5). They are most often small, asymptomatic lesions without degenerative potential. However, lesions that are large or ulcerated may cause symptoms.