Management of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

In the past few years gastric resection has become the therapy of choice for patients with massive hemorrhage from duodenal ulcer. When this is done as an emergency procedure the ability of the surgeon is often taxed to the limit. Although sometimes easy, control is often extraordinarily difficult. Many important technical details must be considered in order to attain a successful outcome. This method of therapy has proved to be very satisfactory with patients who are in good condition for operation, and even in the poorer risks seen on ward service has resulted in a surgical mortality of only 7 per cent in all patients less than 60 years of age treated for this extremely severe type of hemorrhage. In the older age groups mortality rates still remain high.