Small-intestinal involvement in familial polyposis diagnosed by operative intestinal fiberscopy: report of four cases.

Operative intestinal fiberscopy, in which the duodenal fiberscope was introduced during laparotomy for colectomy in familial polyposis via the enterotomy opening, permitted the demonstration of small intestinal polyps in six of seven consecutive cases. Four of the six patients had adenomatous polyps in the proximal jejunum, including one patient with the concomitant presence of ileal adenomas. Polyposis due to lymphoid hyperplasia in the terminal ileum was found in three patients. Preoperative upper gastrointestinal surveys revealed adenomas in the duodenums of all seven patients, adenomas in the gastric antrum in three, and multiple hamartomas in the gastric corpus in two. Thus, in familial polyposis or Gardner's syndrome, more or less the entire gastrointestinal tract seems to be involved and the term "gastrointestinal polyposis" seems to describe these conditions.