Abstract

A retrospective study of patients hospitalized for treatment of peptic ulcer disease at the University of Kentucky Medical Center and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky, for the periods 1967–1968 and 1977–1978 revealed in the later period a 1.3% decrease in the number of ulcer patients relative to total admissions and a 9.2% decrease in the number of patients hospitalized with duodenal or gastric ulcers who had surgical therapy. Emergency procedures increased by 10%, and there were more patients operated on for bleeding ulcers in 1977–1978, with the number of preoperative transfusions increasing from an average of 9 units to 14 units. The etiology of the declining incidence of peptic ulcer disease is only speculative, but this study supports the continued prompt referral of refractory patients for operation to decrease operative mortality.