Background: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was initially developed in Japan for the treatment of early gastric cancer. Meanwhile ESD has become the treatment of choice for mucosal and submucosal lesions of the oesophagus and stomach. Method: We retrospectively reviewed our data on ESD performed in the period from 2007 to 2011 for the treatment of 67 mucosal and 8 submucosal lesions. These procedures were applied for 60 patients (mean age 63.8 years; 37 female and 23 male). Results: In 4 patients, we found more than 1 lesion for which ESD was applied as a treatment procedure. In 3 patients, ESD was repeated for lesion recurrence in the same location. The ESD specimens were classified as having tumour-free margins in 64 (95.5%) cases; however, during follow-up we identified 7 (10.4%) patients with recurrent lesions, including 3 cases of recurrent hyperplastic polyps, 1 case of early gastric cancer located in the cardia region of the stomach, and 1 case of recurrent flat tubular adenoma in the antral part of the stomach. We experienced 6 cases (8.9%) of delayed post-procedural bleeding all of which were successfully controlled endoscopically. In 5 cases (7.5%), perforation complications occurred. Conclusion: Our first experience with ESD was not all smooth: while the complication rate did not exceed 10%, it was markedly higher than that stated in Eastern literature. We would like to put this down to the learning curve phenomenon. The close cooperation between gastroenterologists and abdominal surgeons was very important and will play a vital role for technological innovations and safety in abdominal medicine in the future.