Mucosal hyperplastic polyps of the stomach. Do they have any potential to malignancy?

Gastric mucosal polyps were studied in gastric biopsies, taken from 481 patients who had been operated on for benign peptic ulcer. The material was classified according to the type of operation in the following 4 groups: Billroth-II resection, gastroenterostomy, pyloroplasty with vagotomy and Billroth-I resection. As control group served 1520 nonoperated patients with no ulcer or malignancy. The diagnosed polyps were classified in inflammatory, hyperplastic and neoplastic. Neoplastic polyps were observed only in the nonoperated stomachs with an incidence of 0.5%. The incidence of the hyperplastic polyps was 12.1% for Billroth-II resection, 14.9% for gastroenterostomy and 2.6% for the control group, with a significant difference between the operated and the nonoperated stomachs. The hyperplastic polyps constituted the commonest histological type of polyp in all the groups. The majority of them was observed close to the gastroenterostomy and it seems that there is a relation between their frequency and the time elapsed after the operation. A high degree of epithelial dysplasia in hyperplastic polyps was found in 22.2% of Billroth-II resection patients, in 6.3% of gastroenterostomy patients and in only 2.6% of the control group, with a significant difference between the operated and the nonoperated stomachs.