THIS PAPER is the fourth report in a series dealing with the problem of the obstructing gastroduodenal ulcer. It will deal primarily with the results of therapeutic measures applied to 885 cases of proven obstructing gastroduodenal ulcers as seen at the Cook County Hospital between 1936 and 1955. Previous reports concerned themselves with the general factors influencing incidence and mortality, 1 symptoms and signs, 2 and most recently, laboratory findings.3 Comparable reports have been published on massively bleeding gastroduodenal ulcers 4 as well as acutely perforating ulcers.5 The methods of data analysis have been described in the reports listed above and the same methods have been applied to this study.
The problem of obstructing gastroduodenal ulceration, while routinely considered to be an integral part of ulcer complications, has had, nevertheless, considerably less attention in the literature of recent years than have the other complications—intractability, bleeding, and perforation. With