THE REMOVAL of benign tumors of the esophagus has now become a practical procedure because the accompanying surgical mortality and morbidity are minimal. Leiomyomas occur chiefly in the distal third of the esophagus. Because of their rarity, the difficulty in visualizing this esophageal area in roentgenograms, the presence of concomitant overshadowing lesions and the failure to perform esophagoscopic examination or interpret the findings properly, the correct diagnosis has been frequently missed. It is the purpose of this paper to summarize the pertinent literature and to report successful removal of leiomyomas of the esophagus in 2 cases. INCIDENCE About 200 case reports of esophageal benign tumors are on record. 1 A wide variety of benign esophageal growths have been reported. Besides leiomyomas, authors have described adenoma, 2 fibroma, 3 hemangioma, 4 lipomyoma, 5 myoma, 6 myxofibroma, 7 neurofibroma, 8 fibromyoma, 1 papilloma, 9 polyp 10 and osteochondroma. 11 These tumors occur