Diagnosis and treatment of endometrial polyps

  Endometrial polyps are one of the common endometrial lesions, with an overall incidence of about 25% in the population and a trend of gradual increase in recent years.  I. Clinical manifestations of endometrial polyps Endometrial polyps are mostly seen due to irregular vaginal bleeding, increased menstrual flow and infertility, and some patients are found during physical examination. 62.3% of endometrial polyps occur in premenopausal patients, 37.7% in postmenopausal patients, with a peak age of 50 years. The etiology is unclear, but it is thought to be closely related to estrogen, and the use of triamcinolone acetonide and hormone supplementation increases the incidence of endometrial polyps.  About 70.3% of endometrial polyps are benign, 11.4% to 25.7% have simple or complex hyperplasia, 3.1% have atypical hyperplasia, and 0.8% are malignant. Therefore, some scholars consider endometrial polyps as precancerous lesions. In the literature, the cancer rate of endometrial polyps is 0.5%-4.8%, and most of them are endometrioid adenocarcinoma. The cancer rate is obviously related to age, reaching 10%-15% during menopause and after menopause, and large polyps (>1.5cm), triamcinolone acetonide users and patients with hypertension are prone to cancer.  About half of the patients with endometrial polyps have abnormal vaginal bleeding, and patients of childbearing age usually have no positive signs, therefore, endometrial polyps mainly rely on the following auxiliary examinations and histopathological examination to make a clear diagnosis.  1.Vaginal ultrasound is the first choice for diagnosing endometrial lesions, which is fast, non-invasive, more convenient, and can be performed at any time, and is most commonly used in clinical practice. The ultrasound image of endometrial polyp is generally strong echogenic nodules, tongue-shaped or oval, without peritoneum, and the tip is continuous with the endometrium, and the boundary is not clear.  2, hysteroscopy is the gold standard for the diagnosis of endometrial polyps. Under hysteroscopy, endometrial polyps are single or multiple finger-shaped, tongue-shaped or papillary protrusions of different sizes, mostly located at the bottom of the uterus, soft, bright red, smooth surface, similar to surrounding tissues, most of them are tipped, thin and long, can float with the expansion of the uterine fluid, the surface of which can sometimes be seen as a network of slender blood vessels, while the endometrium around the polyps can be clearly observed. As the hysteroscopy is not only accurate in positioning, but also can determine the nature of the lesion, and if necessary, position the biopsy, and with the magnification imaging system, it is easy to find the micro lesion, especially for diagnosis and treatment.  3.Iodine oil imaging of the uterine tubes is not commonly used in the diagnosis of endometrial polyps, which are mostly found during routine HSG examination due to infertility. Large endometrial polyps may show filling defects in the uterine cavity.  C. Treatment of endometrial polyps The surgical treatment of endometrial polyps used to be scraped and removed, but the results of many years of research have shown that the rate of leakage, residual rate and misdiagnosis of scraping is high, and blind scraping is not advocated at present. Hysterectomy for endometrial polyps is not recommended. Since endometrial polyps are limited endometrial lesions, mainly solitary, with an average diameter of 0.5-2 cm, the above characteristics make them suitable for hysteroscopic removal. Hysteroscopic removal of polyps is accurate in localization, limited in scope, less bleeding, shorter in operative time, faster in recovery, and preserves the function of organs, which is superior to other surgical methods and therefore becomes the treatment of choice for endometrial polyps.  There are two types of hysteroscopic removal of polyps: hysteroscopic positioning and removal of polyps or hysteroscopic removal of polyps under direct vision. Polyp clamping after diagnostic hysteroscopic localization is convenient and fast. However, it cannot remove the base of the polyp and has a high recurrence rate, and it tends to fragment the tissue, which is unfavorable for histological diagnosis. Hysteroscopic removal of polyps under direct vision is very effective, especially the root of polyps located in the basal layer of the endometrium, which significantly reduces the recurrence rate, intraoperative and postoperative complications are rare, and the procedure is very safe. Hormonal supplementation, low birth rate, late menopause, and triamcinolone acetonide use are high-risk factors for polyp recurrence, so hysteroscopic removal of polyps with endometrial debridement is recommended for fertile patients with these high-risk factors to further reduce the recurrence of polyps. At the same time, hysteroscopic endometrial debridement may be more effective than drugs that are still being investigated for the prevention of polyp recurrence, with fewer side effects and lower cost.  In postmenopausal patients, polypectomy should be particularly vigilant for polyp malignancy and endometrial cancer. For hysteroscopic polyps with irregular surface, necrosis, irregular blood vessels and white thickened areas, biopsy should be positioned, and if necessary, rapid frozen section examination should be performed to reduce misdiagnosis and mistreatment.  Except for small asymptomatic polyps which can be followed up regularly, patients with endometrial polyps in their reproductive years with abnormal vaginal bleeding, triamcinolone acetonide users, postmenopausal patients and large polyps (>1.5 cm) should be removed as early as possible. At present, direct hysteroscopic excision of polyps is the preferred surgical procedure for endometrial polyps. For those who do not have fertility requirements but have high risk factors for polyp formation and recurrence, endometrial debridement can be performed at the same time, and hysterectomy should be performed for those with complex endometrial hyperplasia or atypical hyperplasia or combined with adenomyosis. The patient should be closely followed up after surgery.