Vagotomy for gastric ulcer combined with duodenal ulcer

Abstract

Many of the favourable reports on the conservative treatment of gastric ulcers do not clearly define what proportion of the cases had associated duodenal disease. During the past 6 years we have treated 39 patients with gastric ulcers combined with duodenal ulcer or scarring by vagotomy and pyloroplasty. Over the same period 44 cases with gastric ulcer have been similarly treated. At an average follow-up of just under 3 years the functional results were good for 83 per cent, satisfactory for 14 per cent, and poor for 3 per cent for combined ulcers, compared with 54 per cent, 25 per cent, and 21 per cent respectively for gastric ulcers. These differences are just statistically significant. Thus, vagotomy with pyloroplasty has been shown to give better results when used in the treatment of combined ulcers than when solitary gastric ulcers are treated by this operation.