Results of emergency surgical management of hemorrhagic duodenal ulcer.

The results of emergency surgical operations carried out on 61 patients with massively beleding duodenal ulcers between the years 1960 and 1969 were reviewed. The most useful diagnostic tool was gastric roentgenography. However, celiac axis arteriography was not in use during this period. The basic procedure carried out was either gastric resection or vagotomy and pyloroplasty. The mortality between the two groups was similar. However, patients more than 60 years of age had a much greater morbidity after gastric resection. Complications were more likely to occur in patients who had a history of chronic ingestion of aspirin prior to the bleeding episode or in whom bleeding from their duodenal ulcer developed while they were recovering from some other surgical procedure.