Abstract
A 37-year-old man who was detected to have a submucosal tumor of the stomach during a medical checkup was referred to our hospital. The tumor increased in size during follow-up, and on endoscopic ultrasonography, the tumor changed with time from a homogeneous hypoechoic tumor to a heterogeneous hyperechoic tumor. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNA) was performed, but failed to diagnose the tumor, therefore we decided to perform resection surgery for both diagnosis and treatment. Since the tumor was very close to the pyloric ring, we performed laparoscopic distal gastrectomy. Histopathological examination revealed a glomus tumor of the stomach. Glomus tumor of the stomach is very rare and is difficult to diagnose before surgery, however, it has some characteristic features such as its preferred location, namely, the tumor occurs predominantly at the antrum, and its strong enhancement on contrast-enhanced CT because of its hyper vascularity. An understanding of the tumor characteristics may help in the differential diagnosis of submucosal tumors of the stomach and in arriving at appropriate treatment decisions.
