Gastric Polyps: Where Do We Stand?

Abstract

Purpose: 1-4% of patients undergoing upper GI endoscopy have gastric polyps. These lesions may be true epithelial polyps, heterotopias, lymphoid tissue, or stromal lesions. Hyperplastic polyps are the most frequently encountered and occur in both sexes, being more common in the seventh decade of life. The objective was to describe the endoscopic and histopathological characteristics of gastric polyps and establish connections with demographic criteria of our population. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a total of 106 polyps removed with polypectomy snare in the years 2008 and 2009, using endoscopy reports and histopathology results of the lesions. Epidemiologic data was obtained from patient files and was statistically processed with Excel 2007® and SPSS (v16.0)®. Results: 80.2% were hyperplastic, 9.4% true adenomas, and 5.7% were fundic glands. Hyperplastic polyps average size was 11.5 mm with preferential location in the antrum (52.9%). Most adenomas were sessile (80%) and were located preferentially in the body (50%), with an average size of 8.9 mm (60% of those showed high-grade dysplasia). The majority of individuals were infected with Helicobacter pylori and less than a third was medicated with a PPI at the time of polypectomy. There were no major differences between sexes and age distribution. The authors also present the results of univariate and multivariate analysis of epidemiological associations. Conclusion: Most polyps were hyperplastic, confirming the association with areas of high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection.2 The small number of adenomas limits statistical results, but clearly a large portion of them had high grade dysplasia in relation with other epidemiological aspects of our population.