Clinical evaluation of truncal vagotomy performed in a community hospital

A consecutive personal experience in a community hospital involving 871 operations during a 30 year period indicates that truncal vagotomy provides excellent long term results with minimal mortality. In the surgical management of peptic ulcer disease associated with increased risk not only are highly acceptable results obtained, but also truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty constitute an effective conservative operation with a decreased morbidity rate and lowest mortality. An over-all mortality of 0.9 per cent and a mortality of 3 per cent in the patients presenting with gross bleeding emphasizes the need for early surgical care of the patient with an actively bleeding ulcer.