Polyps of the upper gastrointestinal tract: 10-year clinical experience and review of the literature

Background: Gastric polyps are usually benign and asymptomatic lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract observed in 1-8% of esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD). We had previously shared our endoscopy unit’s experience of gastric polyps between 2006 and 2012. The aim of this current study is to extend our previous results up to 2015 and to investigate any potential differences and changing trends. Method: Data was collected through a retrospective analysis of the data from all the EGD performed between January 2006 and January 2015 in the endoscopy unit of the Istanbul Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. The demographic characteristics of the patients, anatomical location of the polyps, histological types and other pathological findigs were analyzed. Results: A total of 91,864 EGD were performed. Gastric polyps were detected in 123 patients and 148 polyps were resected. The most common localization for gastric polyps was the antrum, followed by the corpus and the cardia. Majority of the polyps were hyperplastic polyps (55.4%). Foveolar hyperplasia-precursor lesion of hyperplastic polyps-was the second (12.8%) and fundic gland polyps were the third most common type (8.7%). 4.5% of the specimens had neuroendocrine neoplasia. Conclusion: Hyperplastic polyps continue to be the most common type. Although they are mostly benign lesions with low neoplastic potential, gastric polyps might be malignant in more than 5% of the cases.