Abstract:Objective To evaluate the clinical effect of single band ligation-assisted endoscopic mucosal resection (SBL-EMR) for treatment of small rectal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).Methods A retrospective study was performed on data of patients with small NETs who treated by SBL-EMR from October 2016 to December 2019. The location of lesion, manifestations of EUS, procedure time, pathology, treatment outcomes, adverse events and follow-up results were recorded.Results 26 lesions in 26 patients were enrolled in our study. EUS results showed that 3 lesions originated from muscularis mucosa and 23 lesions from submucosa layer. All the 26 lesions were successfully treated by SBL-EMR. The mean maximum diameter of the lesions was 6.0 mm (5.0~10.0 mm), and the mean procedure time was 5.0 min (3.0~13.0 min). The complete resection rate was 100%. There was 1 patient with suspicious positive basal surgical margin. Histological examination determined that 24 lesions were pathologic grade 1 (G1) and 2 lesions were pathologic grade 2 (G2). Intra-procedure and delayed bleeding occurred in 1 and 2 cases, which were successfully treated by endoscopy. Intra-procedure muscular injury was observed in 1 patient and no perforation occurred. During a mean follow-up period of 24.7 months, no lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis was observed, and no recurrence of the tumor was found.Conclusion Single band ligation-assisted endoscopic mucosal resection may be a simple, safe, efficient and cost-effective method for resecting of small rectal NETs.