Conservative surgery for bleeding duodenal ulcer--vagotomy and pyloroplasty

50 unselected cases of bleeding duodenal ulcer were treated by vagotomy and pyloroplasty with suturing of the bleeding vessels. The operative mortality was 8% of which recurrent haemorrhage accounted for 6% of the patients. The operative mortality was related to advanced age, severity of bleed and associated medical illnesses. Vagotomy-pyloroplasty with suture ligation is technically easy to perform for bleeding duodenal ulcer and has a low incidence of recurrent haemorrhage.