[Cholecystectomy and adenomatous polyps of the colorectum]

The possible correlation between cholecystectomy and adenomatous polyps of the colorectum is evaluated by means of a retrospective study of 2 groups of patients: 90 patients subjected to endoscopic removal of one or more adenomatous polyps of the colon-rectum (histological diagnosis) and 90 control patients paired by sex and age, hospitalised for benign pathology and selected from among those submitted to totally negative colonoscopy. Ten patients (11.1%) were submitted to cholecystectomy among those with adenomatous polyps, 5 (5.5%) in the control group. Subdividing patients by sex women evidenced a relative risk of 5 (O.R. = 5/1, degree of confidence 95% = 0.7-33.4) but the figure was not statistically significant. For males, on the other hand, the relative risk was 1 (O.R. = 5/4). It is concluded that cholecystectomy may be considered a risk factor for the development of adenomas of the colon-rectum in females.