Introduction: submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection (STER) can be an effective treatment for submucosal tumors (SMTs) in the esophagus and cardia. However, STER may be more difficult to perform in the stomach than in the esophagus due to special anatomical and physiological features. The feasibility of STER to remove gastric STMs has not been systematically investigated. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of STER for gastric SMTs.
Material and methods: a comprehensive literature search of the Medline, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted. Complete resection and en-bloc resection rates were considered as the primary outcome measures. The secondary outcome measure was the pooled estimate of complications.
Results: nine studies including 301 patients with 305 lesions were finally included. The pooled estimate of en-bloc resections was 95.1 % (95 % CI: 88.9-97.9 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.151, and the weighted pooled rate (WPR) for complete resection was 97.9 % (95 % CI: 93.6-99.3 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.778. In addition, the pooled estimate of gas-related complications was 8.7 % (95 % CI: 4.6-15.9 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.057. The pooled estimate for mucosal laceration was 4.2 % (95 % CI: 2.2-7.9 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.572. The pooled estimate for delayed bleeding was 2.1 % (95 % CI: 0.9-4.8 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.985. The pooled estimate of inflammation-related complications was 8.6 % (95 % CI: 5.2-13.9 %), Cochran's Q-test, p = 0.308.
Conclusion: STER is an effective and safe technique for removing gastric SMTs with low complications, and complications, when encountered, can be treated conservatively.