Intestinal polyps in children and adolescents--a review of 103 cases.

Juvenile polyps are the most common tumors of the gastrointestinal tract in children and are the principal cause of hematochezia. A total of 103 children and adolescents with intestinal polyps have been treated in Veterans General Hospital-Taipei from March 1961 to March 1994. The diagnosis included 87 cases (84.5%) of juvenile polyps, 2 cases of isolated adenomatous polyp and 14 cases of inherited polyposis syndrome. Juvenile polyps most often occur in children between 2 to 10 years old, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.4:1. Rectal bleeding was the main symptom (97.7%). Of the 87 patients, 82.8% had isolated polyps and 83.3% of those were located in rectosigmoid colon. After extensive use of colonoscopy, the reported incidence of multiple polyps substantially increased, and more polyps were found proximal to the rectosigmoid colon. Most juvenile polyps were removed by colonoscopic polypectomy. The recurrent rate was 10.2%. One of the two cases of juvenile polyposis coli suffered from intussusception demanding partial colectomy. Recurrent polyps were found in the remaining colon and were removed by colonoscopic polypectomy. Seven patients of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome came from five families. At initial diagnosis, one case had no polyps and two presented with intussusception. A 19-year-old girl was found to have bilateral ovarian cysts. One of the three familial adenomatous polyposis had adenocarcinoma at initial evaluation. Two cases of Gardner's syndrome received sulindac treatment, and no evidence of malignancy was found after three years of follow-up.