Colectomy for polyps is associated with high risk for complications and low risk for malignancy: Time for endoluminal surgery?

Abstract

DR. FREDERICK LANE (Indianapolis, Indiana): I'd like to thank the authors for the opportunity to review this paper which seeks to make the case for aggressive endoscopic management of benign colon polyps. Having worked with NSQIP in the past, I realized some items are difficult to extract from the data set, and you addressed this a little bit. You report an upstage rate to cancer of 3.3% in surgeries for colon polyps. How comfortable are you with this number, as I wonder how many of those potentially upstaged patients were listed as cancer patients rather than for coding purposes and, therefore, not really included?