PEPTIC ULCER

Abstract

Peptic ulcer continues to provoke voluminous and diverse opinions each year in respect to both its nature and its treatment. No one can read more than a few of those opinions without bewilderment, and this confusion serves to perpetuate the admittedly unsatisfactory management of the condition. Only a careful and prolonged observation of many patients helps to distinguish fact from theory. We are emboldened to restate our views because time has confirmed them and because we believe that they offer the best available approach to the handling of the individual cases. Our first report,¹published in 1929, was a statistical survey of 556 cases of ulcer of the stomach and duodenum. For our present purpose all our cases, up to Jan. 1, 1932, including the original series, have been analyzed in the same manner. There are 1,435 cases (table 1), and wherever possible the figures are relegated to tables.