Epidemiological characteristics of the pediatric patient with rectal polyps

Abstract

Introduction: Gastrointestinal polyps are found in 1% of preschoolers and schoolchildren, hamartomatous-type rectal polyps being the most frequent lesion in this age group, whose usual clinical presentation is rectal bleeding.

Objective: to determine the clinical epidemiological profile of patients with rectal polyps in the Pediatrics area of the José Carrasco Arteaga and Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospitals. Cuenca, Ecuador, period 2012-2017.

Methodology: a descriptive study was carried out, with the participation of 79 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The information of interest was collected from the medical records of the participants and the AS400 system of the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital and MEDISYS of the Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital. For the statistical analysis, the SPSS version 15 program was used, the qualitative variables are presented in the form of frequencies and percentages, while for the quantitative variables, measures of central tendency were used as the mean.

Results: predominance was found in the male sex (60.8%), mainly in the school stage (50.6%), rectal bleeding being the most frequent symptomatology with 75.9%, the 22.8% presented a palpable mass, depending on the type of polyp morphologically a 79.7% were pedunculated, histologically 67.1% were hamartomatous and according to the number 88.6% were unique.

Conclusions: rectal polyps are common in males and rectal bleeding is the main symptom, being the hamartomatous-type polyps the predominant one.