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Data on the frequency and location of the various types of gastric polyps are highly inconsistent. In a retrospective analysis of 5515 gastric polyps obtained from 4852 patients in the period between 1969 and 1989, including reexamination of 197 surgical, 1572 polypectomy, and 3746 biopsy specimens, the most frequent types found were Elster's glandular cysts (fundic gland polyps) (47.0%), followed by hyperplasiogenous polyp (28.3%), tubular adenoma (9.0%), adenocarcinoma (7.2%), inflammatory fibroid polyp (3.1%), carcinoid tumor (1.7%), Brunner's gland heterotopia (1.2%), and tubulopapillary adenoma (1.0%). Peutz-Jeghers polyps, juvenile polyps, and pancreatic heterotopia were found in younger patients (mean ages: 33.39 and 45 years, respectively), whereas the age of most patients (66%) with glandular cysts was between 40 and 69 years. Patients with any of the other types of gastric polyps were mostly (55-100%) over 60 years of age at the time of diagnosis. Glandular cysts, hyperplasiogenous polyps, inflammatory fibroid polyps, and carcinoid tumors were significantly more common in women, while all the other polyps were more or less equally distributed between the sexes. Glandular cysts and carcinoid tumors were relatively small (mean diameter 8 mm), and were mostly located in the corpus (100% and 83%, respectively). Medium-sized pancreatic heterotopias, Brunner's gland heterotopias, and inflammatory fibroid polyps (mean sizes 7-10 mm) were usually located in the antrum (100%, 81%, 80%, respectively), while the other polyps had an average size of between 10 and 16 mm and were distributed equally throughout the stomach.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)