[Complications in the endoscopic polypectomy of colonic adenomas]

Endoscopic polypectomy is associated with a small but definite risk of bleeding and perforation. Patients with large adenomas are thus usually hospitalized for endoscopic resection. In order to evaluate whether these procedures can be performed in the setting of one day surgery, we retrospectively analyzed the complications and results of polypectomy done in the period from 1.1.1990 through 31.12.1994. Of 1399 colorectal adenomas respected in 680 patients, 385 (28%) were larger than 1 cm. Altogether we observed only 3 (0.2%) clinically significant complications: bleeding was seen in 2 patients, of whom only one required transfusion of one unit. One patient required surgery because of perforation after removal of a sessile cecal adenoma with uneventful outcome. These results show that endoscopic resection of colorectal adenomas is safe even if the polyps are large.