[Colonoscopic polypectomy. Histopathological features and course (author's transl)]

A study of 424 colonic polyps resected electrically via colonic fibroscopy in 343 patients, in several Parisian centers between september 1972 and august 1976. The topography, shape, diameter and histological type of the polyps were analysed, and 14.3% were malignant. Study of the prevalence of the different histological types in subjects of the both sexes, by ten year age groups, revealed the large number of villous and adenocarcinomatous forms in the young woman. The preponderance and increase with age of villous forms in the male explain the marked shift in histological forms towards malignancy seen after the age of 60. The average time taken for transformation of a benign polyp already accessible to endoscopic resection into a killing recto-colic carcinoma may be 13 years. Initial results of the follow-up, of 83 patients undergoing 101 colonoscopic polypectomies, and despite inadequate follow-up, indicated that 9% of polyps recurred (above all, villous and adenovillous polyps), and the absence of local recurrence or metastases detectable after electrical resection of 17 colonic polyps with invasive adenocarcinoma must be taken with great reserve.