Cold sub-mucosal injection versus traditional cold snare polypectomy for diminutive and small colorectal polyps: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The guidelines recommend conventional cold snare polypectomy (C-CSP) for diminutive and small colorectal polyps (≤ 10 mm). However, it remains unclear whether CSP with sub-mucosal injection (SI-CSP) achieves comparable efficacy to C-CSP for managing these lesions. This study compares SI-CSP with C-CSP for patients with diminutive and small colorectal polyps.

An electronic literature search was conducted to retrieve articles comparing resection outcomes between SI-CSP and C-CSP in diminutive and small colorectal polyps (registration number INPLASY2023100096). Our primary outcomes of interest were the complete resection rate (CRR), complications (namely immediate bleeding, delayed bleeding and perforation) and polypectomy time. Mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were employed for continuous variables, while odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI were calculated for categorical variables. Data was analyzed using a random effects model and the I² test was utilized to assess heterogeneity.

Eight studies involving 1470 patients with 2223 polyps were included in our analysis. The CRR was not significantly higher in the SI-CSP group, with an OR of 95% CI 0.50 (0.22, 1.15). The incidences of immediate bleeding (OR 95% CI 0.60 [0.26–1.40]) and delayed bleeding (OR 95% CI 0.88 [0.32–2.42]) did not differ significantly between the two groups. On average, the mean polypectomy time was 64.75 seconds shorter in the C-CSP group (95% CI, − 102.96 to − 26.53). Notably, no perforation events were reported in the included studies.

The use of SI-CSP was not superior to C-CSP in managing diminutive and small colorectal polyps and the procedure required significantly more time.