The history of colonic surgery in war

The history of laparotomy for penetrating abdominal wounds is reviewed from its origins in the sixteenth century to the large series from World War II. It is shown that the mass casualties of World War I allowed the management of organ specific injuries to be studied. This review concentrates upon one of the most contentious topics in war surgery-the management of colonic wounds, and suggests that post-war surgical practice may have been influenced too strongly by experiences from the pre-Penicillin era.