Since 1935 much progress has been made in the radical operative treatment of carcinoma involving the head of the pancreas and the periampullary region. In that year the publication of Whipple, Parsons and Mullins1 opened an avenue of approach to a technical field which previously had been entered only at sporadic intervals. Numerous contributions to the technical details of the operation have appeared in the literature of recent years, and complete reviews of their development have been recorded.2 As a result, the matter of pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma can be approached today with a clearer conception of the operative technic and with a reasonable chance of accomplishing a surgical cure. Despite widening experience with this difficult surgical problem, however, the incidence of postoperative complications, some of which are fatal, remains high. Some of the more distressing postoperative sequelae are referable to the stump of the divided pancreas and