Experience in peptic ulcer surgery

ABSTRACT

In a review of 218 patients with different peptic ulcer disease treated surgically over a nine year period, the occurence in males was found to be 3.7 times more than in females. The patients had a mean age of 41.6 years and a mean duration of symptoms of 9.8 years. Seventy-eight cases [35.8%] presented with ulcer complications [obstruction, perforation and bleeding] and 44 patients [20.2%] had emergency operations. Although the clinical features were suggestive, gastric secretion studies, barium meal and endoscopy were confirmative investigations to diagnosis. Duodenal ulcers were found in 88.6% of patients, gastric ulcers in 6.4%, oesophageal ulcers in 3.2% and stomal [jejunal] ulcers in another 1.8% of cases. Sixteen patients [7.3%] had previous operations for the same disease. Various operations were performed on all cases, and in 32 patients [14.7%], appendectomy and cholecystectomy were additional procedures to the surgery of the ulcer. There were 3 operative deaths [1.4%] all from the emergency operations group, and postoperative complications developed in 18 [8.3%] cases. Successful results were achieved in 200 patients [91.7%] and there were 18 failures