Segmental filiform-polyposis in a treated case of ulcerative colitis, colon: An unusual presentation raising a doubt of primary diagnosis?

Inflammatory bowel disease is broadly classified into Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The standard criteria to distinguish between the two is the manner of the involvement of the bowel, with the former showing classical skip lesions and the latter having continuous involvement of the colon, most commonly affecting the rectum. However, some cases exhibit overlapping features. Herein, we report a treated case of ulcerative colitis presenting with patchy involvement of the colon in the form of peculiar segmental filiform polyposis spanned abruptly by an intervening normal mucosa. The clinico-radiologically suspicion of carcinoma colon with Crohn's colitis was considered. The clinicians and pathologists must be aware of such atypical presentations and should not be misled to change the diagnosis from ulcerative colitis to Crohn's colitis on the post-treatment resection specimens or endoscopic biopsies solely in view of the patchy filiform polyposis (FP), which poses a drastic impact on the patient's management.

Filiform Polyposis in Non-Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A clinicopathologic analysis of five cases / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Filiform polyposis(FP), an unusual form of inflammatory polyposis, has been recently designated to a lesion characterized by multiple, long slender, finger-like projections of mucosa and submucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. We present 5 cases of FP, of which two were associated with irritable bowel syndrome, two with advanced colon carcinoma, and one with active ileotyphlitis(Behcet's disease). The polyps ranged from 1.0 cm to 3 cm; they were either isolated or aggregated, and their numbers were up to 100. The common microscopic feature was filiform polyps which consisted of central submucosal core covered by intact or minimally inflamed intestinal mucosa, comparable with that in reparative processes and formation of inflammatory(redundant) pseudopolyps. We conclude that awareness of FP in non-inflammatory bowel disease may promote the endoscopists to search its underlying disease and prevent unnecessary surgical procedure. Behcets enterocolitis in the ileocecal junction seems an additional preceding disorder of a localized form of FP.