Is Age an Independent Risk Factor for Histopathology of Colorectal Polyps? A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Aim:Colorectal cancer and its precursor lesions are quite common in developed countries. Data on the prevalence of lesions located in the right colon have been reported to range from 20.5 to 48.1% depending on the gender and advanced age. Today, many countries are conducting studies for disseminating the screening programmes in order to detect and treat polyps at an early stage. In this paper, we aimed to evaluate the relationship that exists between the patient’s age and the polyp localisation with histopathology of colorectal polyp.Method:In our endoscopy unit, 789 patients underwent colonoscopy in the last two years. Among these, a total of 724 patients who met the criteria were included in the study group. The demography of the patients and histopathological data of the polyps were evaluated.Results:Of the 724 patients included in the study, 317 had at least one pathology detected by colonoscopy. Of these, 57.4% had polyp, 13.6% had malignancy, 8.2% had diverticula, 6.9% had both diverticula and polyp, 5.4% had ulcerative colitis, 3.8% had Crohn’s colitis, 4.1% had anastomotic stricture, and 0.6% had lipoma. The prevalence of precancerous and cancerous polyps was observed to be significantly higher in the left colon localisation and among cases aged 50 and over. No significant difference was noticed between polyp type and polyp localisation.Conclusion:Age is an independent risk factor for histopathology of colorectal polyps. Therefore, we believe that screening programmes should be disseminated.

Keywords

• colonoscopy
• colorectal polyps
• risk factor