Efficacy and safety of the inject and cut technique for endoscopic colonic polypectomy

......................................... Received: 03-10-12 Accepted: 17-01-13 Abstract Colonic polypectomy is the most important tool for stopping adenoma-cancer, and the inject and cut technique has demonstrated efficacy and safety in studies conducted in other countries. Since in our country there are no reported data on performance of this technique, it is necessary to describe the experience of a gastroenterology unit of a university. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to describe operational characteristics of endoscopic colonic polypectomy using the inject and cut technique and to describe demographic characteristics of patients undergoing this procedure. Materials and Methods: We included all patients who underwent endoscopic colonic polypectomies in the gastroenterology unit of the Clínica Fundadores in Bogotá from January 2003 to September 2011. Data were processed using SPSS version 18 18.8 (SPSS-IBM) statistical package. Results: 420 patients underwent polypectomies which resected a total of 548 polyps. Mean patient age was 56.3 years (range 14 to 93), 201 patients were male, and 219 were female. Polyps were most commonly located in the left colon (238/64.4%). Average size was 1.6 cm. 83.8% were pedunculated, 13.3% were sessile, and 2.85% were flat. Intraoperative bleeding occurred in 36 cases (8.6%). There was no relationship between this complication and the size of polyps (<= 20vs> 20 mm), OR: 0.44 (CI 0.19-1.01), nor with the number of resected polyps (1Vs> 1) OR: 1.44, (95%:0.65-3 .2). All cases of bleeding were controlled endoscopically without further complications. There was no need for surgery. There were no local recurrences during follow-up. Conclusions: This study showed that the inject and cut technique is a practical, effective, economical and easy to perform technique for removal of colonic polyps. To date this is the largest series published in our country on the subject.