[An unusual cause of death after the Whipple operation]

The authors describe and discuss the sudden death of a patient 22 days after curative resection of a tumour of the head of the pancreas. The previous quite uncomplicated postoperative development was terminated by massive haemorrhage into the upper digestive tract. As a result of this haemorrhage the patient died in shock before the source of the haemorrhage could be investigated. On necropsy an obvious source of haemorrhage was not detected. Only three minor submucous venectasias in the blind stump of an excluded jejunal loop. One with a minor mucosal defect, may have been the cause of this fatal complication.