The Frequency of Gastrointestinal Polyps in Iranian Population

Background and Objectives: Gastrointestinal polyps are proliferative or neoplastic mucosal lesions. The most important point about these polyps is risk of malignancy of them. This study was performed to determine type and frequency of polyps of gastrointestinal tract in Iranian population according to their locations. Materials and Methods: Totally, 210 patients referred to Rasul-e-Akram Hospital in years 2006-2010 and had pathology report of gastrointestinal polyps were included in the study. Frequency of gastrointestinal polyps was determined according to type, histological subtype, location, age and sex. The data was analyzed by software SPSS 16. Results: Of participants, 129 patients were male (61.4%) and 81 (38.6%) were female. The mean age of patients was 58.4±32 yr. The mode of age interval was 70-80 yr (25.2%). The most frequent presenting symptom was lower gastrointestinal bleeding as melena or hematochesia (31%). Colon and sigmoid were site of most of gastrointestinal polyps (74.2%). The most prevalent type of gastrointestinal polyps was adenomatous polyp which was reported in 175 patients (84.3%). The most common types of colonic and gastric polyps were adenomatous and hyperplastic types respectively. Conclusion: Our data is highly confirmatory to previous studies regarding association of polyp with advanced age and male sex, the most prevalent symptom and site of gastrointestinal polyps, and the most common types of colonic polyps. The frequency of gastric polyps in our population differs with some studies.