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Twenty-nine patients who underwent Nissen fundoplication for the treatment of symptomatic, sliding, esophageal hiatal hernia are reported. Fourteen of these patients also underwent parietal cell vagotomy (PCV) without a drainage procedure. Simulatenous cineradiography and manometric studies, esophagoscopy and gastric analysis were performed pre- and postoperatively. Esophageal acid clearing and pH reflux studies were performed postoperatively. All but 3 patients had reflux and/or esophagitis preoperatively. Cineradiography and the pH reflux test were the most reliable tests for diagnosis of reflux. There was no operative mortality. The mean followup period was 20 months. Dysphagia occurred in 5 patients. Correction of dysphagia in one patient required operation. The dysphagia in the remaining patients was temporary and mild, responding to dilatation. Two patients had mild diarrhea. One patient who had had a previous gastric resection developed severe diarrhea after bilateral truncal vagotomy. No patient developed the "bloat syndrome". A close correlation did not exist between reflux and preoperative sphincter pressure. The mean LES pressure increased 10 mmH2O postoperatively and the two patients with persistent reflux postoperatively had normal LES pressure. Correction of reflux after Nissen fundoplication is probably due to some mechanism other than increased LES pressure. Recurrent or persistent hiatal hernia was diagnosed in 4 patients by cineradiography. Two of these patients had reflux but only the patient who had undergone PCV was without symptoms or esophagitis. The technical performance of the Nissen hiatal hernia repair was greatly facilitat ed by PCV. This procedure also provided adequate treatment for patients with concomitant duodenal ulcer disease. PCV, unaccompanied by a drainage procedure, was not associated with increased morbidity, mortality or the adverse effects usually attributed to vagotomy. In the event of recurrent hernia and reflux, PCV may prevent the development of esophagitis.

In a prospective randomized trial, 700 patients with a confirmed histological diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the rectum or rectosigmoid were randomized to receive radiotherapy prior to operation (2000 to 2500 rads in two weeks) or surgery alone. Five year observed survival in the 453 patients on whom "curative" resection was possible was 48.5% in the X-ray treated group compared with 38.8% in controls, while in the 305 having low lying lesions requiring abdominoperineal resection, survival in the treated group was 46.9% compared with 34.3% in controls. Although suggestive of a treatment benefit, neither is considered statistically significant. Histologically positive lymph nodes were found in 41.2% of the control group and in only 27.8% of the patients receiving radiotherapy. Reveiw of all patients who died during the study shows a consistently lower death rate from cancer in the radiotherapy group. Although this study suggests a treatment benefit from preoperative radiotherapy, further studies now in progress by this group and others are necessary to determine the optimal dose regimen.

One hundred and nine patients with perforated duodenal ulcer were treated by operation between 1973 and 1980. The operations performed included simple closure in 37 patients, vagotomy and drainage or gastric resection in 12 patients, and proximal gastric vagotomy without drainage and with omental patch of the perforation in 60 patients. Patients who were treated by proximal gastric vagotomy have been observed for 1-8 yr and form the basis of this study. There was no operative mortality. One patient with a postoperative infection required secondary drainage and a second patient with intestinal obstruction required lysis of adhesions. There were no other important complications. Persistent mild dumping occurred in 1 patient. Diarrhea was not a complication for any patient. One patient developed a recurrent ulcer and underwent truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty. All patients except the patient with a recurrent ulcer had a Visick grading or I or II. Proximal gastric vagotomy, omental patch of the ulcer, and no drainage procedure is the ideal operation for patients who are candidates for definitive treatment of a perforated duodenal ulcer.

This is a progress report of a prospective, randomized study involving 200 consecutive patients treated electively with either parietal cell vagotomy (PCV) or selective vagotomy and antrectomy (SV-A). Both groups comprised patients with pyloric, prepyloric, or duodenal ulcers. There was no operative mortality in either group. Patients were examined at 2, 6, 12 months, and every 12 months thereafter for 8-10 years. The two operations produced no statistical difference in the frequency of diarrhea. Dumping (p less than 0.0005) and weight loss (p less than 0.0005-p less than 0.05) were statistically less after PCV than after SV-A. There were two recurrent ulcers (2.2%) after SV-A. One was treated successfully by medical therapy and one patient suspected of having gastrinoma had total vagotomy. Nine patients had recurrent ulcers in the PCV group for an accumulated recurrence rate of 10.1% at 10 years by life-table analysis. There was a significant difference (p less than 0.033) between the curves for recurrent ulcers in the two groups of patients. The recurrent ulcer rate after PCV was 21% for patients with pyloric and prepyloric ulcers and 6% for patients with duodenal ulcer. There was no significant difference between the recurrent ulcer rate for PCV and SV-A if the patients with pyloric and prepyloric ulcers were withdrawn from the study. Of the nine patients with recurrent ulcers in the PCV group, three had an inadequate vagotomy and four had a pyloric or prepyloric ulcer before operation. Three patients were successfully treated with antrectomy. Five patients were treated successfully by medical therapy and remained healed for long periods without recurrence. One patient had five recurrences. He declined operation and remained free of symptoms for 3 years after his last recurrence. Poor gastric emptying necessitated gastroenterostomy in five patients in the SV-A group and in one patient in the PCV group. Patients' clinical results were evaluated according to a simple Visick grading scale. A significantly (p less than 0.0005) greater number of patients were in Visick I category after PCV than after SV-A. The clinical results obtained with PCV make this the operation of choice for the elective surgical treatment of duodenal ulcers even though the results obtained with SV-A were good.