ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the results of follow-up endoscopy after resection of adenomatous polyps from the colon. DESIGN: Retrospective. SETTING: De Heel Hospital, department of Internal Medicine, Zaandam, the Netherlands. PATIENTS AND METHOD: The 124 patients, 66 males and 58 females, with a mean age of 53 years (range: 23-74), in whom a colonpolyp had been removed endoscopically, who had no colonic carcinoma and no positive family history, were registered for follow-up after one year and after 3 or 5 years. In 1997, data were collected on the polyps found and removed at follow-up. RESULTS: At the original coloscopy, 68 patients (55%) had one polyp, 46 (37%) had two to four polyps and 10 (8%) > or = five polyps. The localizations of the polyps were: rectum 17%, sigmoid 66%, descending colon 12%, transverse colon 3%, ascending colon 1% and caecum 1%. Over one-third of the polyps were larger than 1.5 cm. Ninety-eight patients underwent a first follow-up endoscopy after an average of 12 months (range: 0.4-57); one or more polyps were found and removed in 37 of them (38%). At a second follow-up endoscopy after an average of 28 months (range: 5.4-68 months), polyps were again found and removed in 26 of the 57 patients (46%). If two or more polyps had been removed at an earlier coloscopy, the risk of polyps being found again at the next coloscopy was larger (p < 0.001).
