Published online Sep 28, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i36.13035
Revised: March 12, 2014
Accepted: May 29, 2014
Published online: September 28, 2014
Processing time: 259 Days and 20.5 Hours
Core tip: Minimally invasive surgery has become common in surgical resection of gastrointestinal submucosal tumors (SMTs). Although laparoscopic resection has been the main stream of minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal SMTs, recent advance in endoscopic procedures also provide various modalities of treatment for gastric SMTs. Moreover, investigators developed several hybrid techniques, which include the advatages of the laparoscopic and endoscopic procedure. Additionally, reduced port surgeries, which is modified from the conventional laparoscopic procedures, have been recently applied to the surgical resection of SMTs. Meanwhile, the application of a robotic surgeries to the treatment of SMTs still request more evidence and improvement.