Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Hyperplastic Polyps

Hyperplastic polyps of the stomach are routinely encountered during upper endoscopy and often arise in the setting of abnormal surrounding mucosa, particularly Helicobacter pylori, autoimmune gastritis, and reactive gastropathy. Not infrequently gastroenterologists fail to biopsy the surrounding mucosa, thus determining the underlying etiology of the gastric hyperplastic polyp can be difficult. Recently, the Rodger C. Haggitt Gastrointestinal Pathology Society published guidelines on the use of special stains. The society guidelines indicate that H pylori are not usually present in hyperplastic polyps and special stains in this setting may have limited utility. We analyzed the histologic features of 32 gastric hyperplastic polyps in which the nonpolypoid mucosa demonstrated H pylori gastritis. A consecutive series of 50 hyperplastic polyps in which no surrounding mucosa was sampled was also analyzed. When H pylori are identified in biopsies of the nonpolypoid mucosa, it is also commonly present within the polyp tissue (22/32, 69%). The majority of H pylori organisms were identified on routine hematoxylin and eosin stain (16/22, 72%). In contrast, H pylori were only seen in 2/50 consecutive hyperplastic polyps in which the surrounding mucosa was not sampled. Compared with the hyperplastic polyps that lack the organisms, H pylori associated hyperplastic polyps more commonly had dense lymphoplasmacytic inflammation (P =.0001) and neutrophils within gastric epithelium (P =.036). Polyp location, number, size, and presence of intestinal metaplasia was not associated with H pylori. These results provide empirical data to guide evaluation of hyperplastic polyps for H pylori.