ANALYSIS OF ENDOSCOPIC AND HISTOPATHOLOGIC FEATURES OF GASTRIC POLYPS

The prevalence of gastric polyps in esophagogastroduodenoscopies range between 0.33 and 6.35%. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence and describe the endoscopic and histopathologic characteristics of polypsThis is a retrospective cross-sectional study including adult patients who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy from 2012-2015. Analysis of polyps were done by demographics, endoscopic and histologic characteristics.Among 4294 patients, 165 (3.8%) had gastric polyps. 57.7% did not undergo any therapeutic intervention. Majority of these polyps were size less than 5mm (96.9%), location in the body (59.8%) and sessile appearance (96.9%). Among those with intervention, majority were fundic gland polyps (82.3%). 4% were inflammatory while 5.9% were hyperplastic. 4.4% were tubular adenomas. For fundic polyps, majority were less than 5mm (89.3%), found in the body (75%) and sessile (96.4%). For inflammatory polyps, majority were less than 5mm (60%) and sessile (80%). For hyperplastic polyps, all appeared sessile. For tubular adenomas, they were solitary, sessile, found in the body and mostly greater than 20mm. The size of the polyp was statistically correlated (R= 0.7) to its potential for malignant transformation.Although histologic types may have common characteristics, the endoscopic manifestation of polyps can be variable. Distinguishing benign from malignant lesions can be challenging. Because of the risk of malignant transformation, polypectomy is recommended for all polyps especially larger lesions and these should be sent for histopathological analysis.