Operative treatment of typhoid perforation with peritoneal irrigation: a comparative study.

Two hundred and ten cases of typhoid enteritis were seen and treated in Ife, Nigeria, between 1972 and June 1979. A comparative analysis was made between those treated conservatively and surgically. A new and hitherto undescribed method of approach, peritoneal irrigation after surgery, was used in 180 patients. The results obtained have convinced us that all cases of typhoid must be promptly and adequately resuscitated, operated, drained, and irrigated.