Surgery for symptomatic colon lipoma: a systematic review of the literature.

AIM: Isolated colon lipomas are rare benign tumors. We herein conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify clinical characteristic, diagnostic and treatment options.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search for relevant studies was conducted in Scopus, Embase and Medline databases until the end of May 2014. The search terms were "colonic lipoma and colon lipoma". Articles were included if they had information on symptoms, lipoma characteristics and type of procedure performed.

RESULTS: 88 articles describing 184 patients affected with colonic lipomas were found. One hundred and twenty-seven patients were selected for further analysis. The most common signs included abdominal pain, rectal bleeding and alteration in bowel habits. Colonic lipomas were frequently localized in the right colon (50%). The majority of patients had open surgery, whereas current treatment is laparoscopic resection.

CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic surgery is the current standard-of-treatment of symptomatic colonic lipomas greater than 2 cm in diameter or when malignancy can not be preoperatively excluded.