Purpose. To identify the prevalence, types, and patterns of colonic polyps in a cohort of patients presenting to a tertiary care referral center in Sri Lanka. Methods. Endoscopy and pathology reports of a single unit from 2006 to 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. Spearman’s correlation coefficient and chi-square test were used to identify correlations. Results. There were a total of 158 patients (M？:？F, 10？:？57) who had polyps encountered on colonoscopy () and flexible sigmoidoscopy () with an incidence of 4.1%. Mean age was 56.5 years (SD 16.4) and the incidence of polyps increased with age. The majority (81.6%) had one polyp. A total of 188 polyps were assessed and most were seen in the rectum (33.5%) followed by sigmoid colon (22.9%). The commonest histological type was tubulovillous adenoma (33.5%) followed by tubular adenoma (24.5%). Most polyps were benign (91.5%). There was no statistically significant correlation with age or gender with malignancy, site, or histology. Discussion and Conclusion. The incidence of colorectal polyps was lower than the values reported in the west. More polyps were identified in males. There was no statistically significant association between age, gender, or multiplicity and malignant change in the polyps. 1. Introduction Colorectal polyps (CP) are abnormal growths of tissue projecting from the mucosa of the large bowel. They may be classified according to their morphology (sessile or pedunculated), histology (hyperplastic, adenoma, etc.), and behaviour (benign or malignant). The biggest concern is their ability to progress into carcinoma, through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence [1–3]. Accordingly, the prevalence of adenomas roughly parallels the risk of colorectal malignancy in western populations [4] where up to a quarter of asymptomatic average risk individuals will have an adenoma [5]. The data on the prevalence and distribution of polyps in Asians is limited. Data from India suggests that the prevalence of CP is about 2% [6] and they occur in relatively younger patients [7]. There is conflicting data about the commonest type [7, 8]. In Thailand, the commonest type was hyperplastic polyps [9] while it was juvenile polyps in Cameroon [10] and adenomatous polyps in Iran [11] and Saudi Arabia [12]. There is no data available on CP in Sri Lankans. Data on the prevalence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is available in relative abundance, even in Asian countries, despite having the lowest incidence in the world [13, 14]. In Sri Lanka, the crude rate is 4 per 100,000 [13, 15] while it is approximately 2 per 100,000 in India
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