Polyps
Polyps are tumors, generally benign that affect the intestinal mucus. They can be found in several locations of the digestive tract but they are more common in the colon. Their diameter and size vary from millimeters to several centimeters, they have a flat form or shape that of a mushroom (they have a stem and a head), many patients have several dispersed polyps in different parts from the colon.
The most common symptoms are alterations in the bowel movements like constipation, bleeding without pain (when food passes by, it strikes the polyp thus making it bleed).
There’s two types of polyps: the hyperplasic polyps that does not represent any cancer risks and it’s the most frequent one, and the adenomatous polyps (called adenomas), which can be the origin of a colon cancer.
What to do?
- If you suspect that you could have polyps, by any history in your family or symptoms of rectal bleeding, go see your doctor and he’ll ask you some information and conduct a physical exploration. An endoscopic study of the colon (or coloscopy) will be the following step since it allows the diagnosis and the treatment of the polyps in being as exact as possible in order to dry out the polyps during the endoscopy and extract them without any discomfort for the patient.
- Afterwards, the extracted polyps are sent to a microscopic analysis in order to discard the idea of the presence of cancer.
