Background: Gastric polyps are asymptomatic lesions incidentally discovered during upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of gastric polyps and to identify the different histological types of them found in upper GI endoscopic settings and their associated risk factors.

Methods: This study included 964 patients who underwent scheduled and emergency upper GI endoscopy. All patients underwent full history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigations, and upper GI endoscopy. Biopsies were obtained from gastric polyps to detect histological types and from the gastric mucosa for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) testing.

Results: Forty patients (4.2%) were diagnosed with gastric polyps. 75% of cases were diagnosed with only one polyp, whereas 10 cases (25%) were diagnosed with two or more polyps. The gastric body was the most common polyp site (17 cases), followed by the antrum (13 cases). Approximately half of cases were of the hyperplastic type (57.5%), followed by the fundic type (30%), then adenomatous polyp and adenocarcinoma (5%), and finally the gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) type (one case). There was a statistically significant relation between the presence of polyps and prolonged proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) intake (p = 0.024), while there was no statistically significant relation between the presence of polyps and H. pylori infection (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: The prevalence of gastric polyps was 4.2%. Hyperplastic polyps are the most common histological type of gastric polyps. Prolonged PPIs intake was the only risk factor that showed a statistically significant association with gastric polyps.