Background: Colonic polyp, the most common gastrointestinal tumor in children, is considered a cause of rectal bleeding in the pediatric population. Colonoscopy is the "gold standard" procedure in diagnosis and therapeutic.
Objective: To know the incidence and symptomatology of colonic polyps in children to remark on the usefulness of the endoscopic examination. PATIENTS-METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 1985 and 1996, over 1,000 colonoscopies were performed on 50 children between 8 months and 14 years old. The patients had colonic polyps and lower gastrointestinal bleeding. In 40 cases polyps were solitary, 82% were located in rectum sigmoid, and 80% of polyps were found to be juvenile (retention). There were no complications associated with diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy.
Conclusions: The endoscopic method was shown to be very useful for diagnosis as well as treatment of the colonic polyps in children.