Eighteen patients with benign tumour or cyst of the oesophagus were operated on over a 26-year period at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Uppsala University Hospital. The series comprised 11 cysts and 7 benign tumours, including one case of the rare myoblastoma. The incidence of operations was 0.33 per million population. There was no operative mortality and no subsequent morbidity from the oesophageal disease. The follow-up is complete. A review of the literature confirms that these lesions are rare and that they usually are submucosal. Many are asymptomatic (in our series only about 1/3 caused symptoms). The most common symptoms are those resulting from compression of the oesophagus, which can lead to obstruction and pulmonary complications. It may therefore be warrantable to operate on benign oesophageal tumours and cysts even in the absence of symptoms, thereby also confirming the diagnosis.