Colonoscopic polypectomy of juvenile polyps in children: Experience from a tertiary centre of Bangladesh

Abstract

Aims

To assess the specifics of juvenile polyps and the value of polypectomy with complete colonoscopy in pediatric patients.

Methods

I retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 81 children diagnosed with juvenile polyps from 2017 to 2021.

Results

The patients' ages ranged from 1.5 to 18 years. Hematochezia was present in 100% of cases, in which 97.5% of the bleeding was painless. The most frequent was red or dark red hematochezia in 71.6% of cases, followed by red stool with blood dripping in 9 (11.1%) cases. The time interval between the first episode of hematochezia and the colonoscopy ranged from 1 to 47 months. Only 24.7% of polyps were diagnosed by digital rectal examination. Most of the Juvenile polyps were solitary (82.8%) and located in the rectosigmoid part of the colon. The size of the polyps varied from 0.3 to 4 ​cm. Early post-polypectomy bleeding occurred in two cases, while late post-polypectomy bleeding occurred in only one case.

Conclusions

Although solitary juvenile polyps in the rectosigmoid colon are more common, some patients had multiple and some had proximal polyps. Therefore, a colonoscopy of the entire colon with therapeutic polypectomy is important for improved outcomes when evaluating painless, intermittent hematochezia in children.