Malignancy of colonic polyps. Diagnosis and management.

The risk of malignant degeneration of colonic polyps has traditionally rested on various roentgenographic criteria such as broad base, irregular surface and size larger than 1 cm. With the aim of facilitating the choice of treatment of colonic polyps, an appraisal is made of the morphology of 200 polyps removed from 154 patients. The results of barium enema and double contrast techniques are compared with those obtained at colonoscopy. Radiography is found to have considerable shortcomings in evaluation of the appearance of the polyp. As the correlation of the gross morphology of the polyp of histology is weak endoscopic polypectomy should be performed whenever possible.