Inflammatory fibroid polyp of the stomach.

Among 3,200 polyps of the stomach, we diagnosed inflammatory fibroid polyp in 143 patients (4.5%). The average age of the patients was 63.6 years (women) and 63.9 years (men), the sex ratio being 1.6 women to 1.0 men. In 77.6% of the cases, the polyp was located within the antrum, in 9.8% in the angular notch region, 1.4% in the pylorus, and 0.7% each in the fundus and cardia. The characteristic histological feature of these lesions is an eosinophil-containing, loosely structured fibrous tissue comprising an onion-skin-like arrangement of reticular fibers with spindle-shaped nuclei localized in the submucosa and the base of the mucosa. The polypous bulging mucosa was eroded in 26.8% and ulcerated in 3.5% of the cases. A comparison of the 147 cases collected from the literature with our own 143 cases revealed no differences. The rarity of inflammatory fibroid polyps in the stomach, their predominant location in the antrum, the age distribution and the observation that, after removal, these lesions do not recur, all go to suggest that the lesion is a reactive process (allergic or foreign body reaction), possibly a residual state following infestation by a parasite larva.