Introduction:

A gastrointestinal polyp is a localized growth tumor, protruding from the wall into the lumen1. The most common clinical presentation is low digestive hemorrhage (recurrent rectal bleeding) abdominal pain, prolapse of polyps through the rectum, pain after defecation, diarrhea or constipation3. Polyps occur up to 1% in children and 90% of these are juvenile polyps. The majority are solitary and in 80 to 90% of the cases are located in the sigmoid colon5. The treatment of choice is polypectomy via endoscopy8,9.

Objective:

Determine the prevalence in pediatric patients with polyps in the colon, attended at the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Service of the General Hospital of Mexico ¨Dr. Eduardo liceaga”.

Material and methods:

Descriptive, ambispective and observational study. We reviewed all colonoscopies performed in the endoscopy service in the period of 2012 to May 30th of 2019, in pediatric patients who attended the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Service and found the presence of polyps in the colon as an endoscopic finding.

Results:

From 2012 to May 30th 2019, a total of 7832 colonoscopies were performed, of which 420 (5.3%) were reported in pediatric patients where 51 (12.1%) of these were finding of colon polyps with a predominance 29 (56.8%) in the male sex. The prevalence by age group was the following: 2-9 years (45%) and 10-17 years (55%). The main symptom reported was low digestive tract bleeding in 23 (45%) patients. The most common finding in the colonoscopy was: Polyps (76.4%). The anatomical location of the polyps by frequency was: Right Colon (51.2%). The most frequent histopathological results by frequency were juvenile polyps in 23.5%.

Conclusions:

Colonoscopy in pediatric patients is a safe procedure, being a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic, the main finding are rectum polyps, resectable in all cases. The most frequent clinical presentation is painless digestive tract bleeding and no complication was reported, the management and follow-up of each case was determined by the histopathological result.

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