[Recto-colic polyps in the child. Analysis of 183 cases]

Between January 1974 and April 1988, 1,533 colonoscopy were carried out in children less than 15 years old. Two hundred and seventy-four polyps were demonstrated in 183 children (106 boys, 77 girls, mean age: 6 years). The main symptom in most cases was rectal bleeding during defecation. A family history of polyps or digestive cancer was found in 6% of all patients. Two hundred and thirty-nine polyps were removed by endoscopic resection, 232 of them by the diathermic snare and 7 by William's hot biopsy technique. Histological examination of 129 polyps revealed a juvenile polyp in 125 cases, an hyperplastic polyp in 2 cases, a lymphoid polyp in 1 case and an adenoma in 1 case. No complications were observed except for one case each of hemorrhage and perforation following endoscopic polypectomy.