Vagotomy and drainage for elective treatment of peptic ulcers.

Two hundred and thirty-one patients were treated electively for the complications of peptic ulcer disease other than massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage. In this group, there was one operative mortality, an incidence of 0.4 per cent; 99.7 per cent were successfully observed for periods extending up to 25 years. The proved rate of recurrence was 3 per cent, with an additional 1.3 per cent suspected of recurrence. It has been repeatedly shown by ourselves and other that vagotomy with drainage is the procedure of choice for patients with peptic ulcer disease presenting with massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage. On the basis of these data, we also believed that, until the advocates of other procedures can present convincing series of patients observed as thoroughly and as long, that truncal vagotomy with drainage remains a viable choice of surgical therapy for all manifestations of the peptic ulcer.