RESULTS OF RESECTION OF THE VAGUS NERVE FOR CHRONIC PEPTIC ULCER

Abstract

IT IS fair to say that the management of patients with peptic ulcer is still largely a medical problem, inasmuch as most authorities agree that only about 15 per cent need surgical intervention. The work of Dragstedt and his associates has opened up a new approach to the surgical attack, and in many clinics studies are now in progress seeking to determine the permanent value of vagus nerve resection in those patients in whom medical treatment has not been successful. SCOPE OF THIS PAPER Our study attempts to evaluate results in a series of 101 patients subjected to vagotomy in the past two and a half years, 66 of whom were operated on at the Veterans' Hospital at Hines, Ill., and 35 at the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. It involves the work of eighteen different surgeons, all members of the American Board of Surgery, and several medical men in these