[Value and results of coloscopic polypectomy].

From August 1976 till the end of February 1979 158 polyp in 83 patients (48 male and 35 female) were removed by means of the rectocoloscopic polypectomy with the high frequency diathermy loop. 66% of the polypi had a diameter of less than 1 cm. Most the polypi were with about 70% in the sigma and in the rectum. With 60.7% the adenomas appeared most frequently, followed by the hyperplastic polypi in 20% and by the inflammatory ones in 13.3% of the cases. With the increase of size of the polypi the proportion of the adenomas clearly increased in comparison to the other kinds of polypi. Severe epithelial atypias (altogether 23.1%) were more frequently in adenomas larger than 2 cm than in smaller ones. An invasive carcinoma was found in no polypus. Thus the endoscopic polypectomy in every case meant a curative therapy with great economic use. In patients a haemorrhage appeared as a complication of the coloscopic polypectomy. Only the removal of the polypi in toto allows an exact histological classification and the answer of the decisive question, whether in one adenoma only severe epithelial atypias are present and thus the polypectomy is therapeutically sufficient or whether there exists an adenocarcinoma, for the removal of which an operation according to the principles of the carcinoma surgery must be carried out. The endoscopic ablation of the adenomas thus means a genuine prophylaxis of cancer.