THE PURPOSE of this paper is to describe the appearance of the gastric mucosa before and after vagotomy. A total of 125 gastroscopies were performed on 27 patients, 26 of whom had peptic ulcer and 1 of whom had a functional gastrointestinal disturbance; 18 were examined before and after operation and 9 after vagotomy only. The criteria for the diagnosis of gastritis were essentially those formulated by Schindler.1 The stomach also was examined histologically in 11 patients, in 3 at the time of resection of a gastric ulcer, developing approximately five months to four years after vagotomy, and in 8 at autopsy, performed from one week to two years and three months after operation.
Wolff2 examined gastroscopically 8 patients with duodenal ulcer and 3 with gastric ulcer, one week to eleven months after vagotomy, and observed a dull and reddened mucosa in 7 and a normal mucosa in