Vagotomy; clinical results, with a note on temporary gastrostomy

Sixty replies to questionnaires sent to more than 100 patients who had had vagotomy for peptic ulcer showed that 93 per cent had satisfactory results. There were no deaths in this series. Three times as many unsatisfactory results occurred in a group of patients who had had gastrectomy. There were no proved recurrent or marginal ulcers in either group. Vagotomy plus a complementary procedure has proved, in the author's experience, to be the operation of choice in chronic duodenal ulcer. At present gastrectomy plus vagotomy appears to be less desirable than vagotomy plus pyloroplasty or gastroenterostomy.