GASTRIC SECRETION IN THE IMMEDIATE POSTOPERATIVE PERIOD

Abstract

THIS STUDY was stimulated by the development of severe hemorrhage from peptic ulcers in four patients during convalescence from operations not related to the stomach or duodenum, and by a severe hemorrhage from a posterior duodenal ulcer in a patient nine days after suture of an anterior duodenal perforation. All the ulcers either were known to exist prior to surgery or were found to be old ulcers from their gross or histological appearance. However, with the exception of the case of hemorrhage following suture of an anterior ulcer, none showed clinical evidence of activity in the preoperative period. All were true peptic ulcers and not related to the Curling ulcer or to the erosions commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract at autopsy. REPORT OF CASES Case 1 (No. 9693, St. Anthony's Hospital).—G. R., a 63-year-old white man, admitted on Dec. 6, 1950, bled on the 14th postoperative day following the