“Cold” polypectomy for colorectal polyps: prospective randomized trial

Background: endoscopic electroexcision is the standard technique for the removal of colorectal polyps. However, it is associated with the postoperative morbidity. In order to reduce the incidence of complications, “cold” excision seems to be an alternative option.

Aim: to improve the results of endoscopic treatment for patients with colorectal polyps.

Patients and methods: from September 2019 to September 2020, 160 patients ≥ 18 years old (80 in each group), who underwent endoscopic removal of colorectal polyps ≤ 10 mm in size by cold excision (132 lesions) and traditional polypectomy (129 lesions), were included in a prospective randomized trial. All removed specimens were studied histologically with an assessment of the resection margins (R0/R1). The analysis of the postoperative complications after endoscopic polypectomy and the incidence of Rx resection after removal of polyps by both techniques was done.

Results: the compared groups were homogenous in the number of patients, gender, age, and comobridities. There were no significant differences in the number of removed polyps, their site and the type according to endoscopic classifications. The operation time was significantly higher in the conventional polypectomy group compared with the “cold” one (p = 0.0001). There were no significant differences in the intraoperative complications rate between the two groups (p = 0.06). There were no postoperative complications in the “cold” group. In the control group postoperative complications occurred after 12 out of 129 polyps removal (p = 0.001). The univariate analysis showed that a risk factor for the development of postoperative complications after conventional polypectomy is the lack of submucosal lifting (OR: 15.3, 95% CI: 1.9-125.6, p = 0.01). Histopathology of the removed specimens showed that in both groups most of the procedures were considered as R0 resections (54% in the main group, 56.4% in the control group, p = 0.8). The polyp size ≤ 4 mm identified as a risk factor for R1, Rx resection (OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3–4.7, p = 0.007).

Conclusion: “cold” polypectomy is an effective and safe method and may be recommended as an alternative technique for the removal of non-pedunculated colorectal polyps ≤ 10 mm.

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