Selective Anterior and Total Posterior Vagotomy Compared with Bilateral Selective Vagotomy in Treatment of Duodenal Ulcer in 116 Patients

58 patients with duodenal ulcer were submitted to selective anterior and total posterior vagotomy. Another 58 patients with duodenal ulcer, comparable with the latter, were contemporarily submitted to bilateral selective vagotomy. Assessed by the insulin test, bilateral selective vagotomy resulted in a significantly greater number of complete vagotomies than did selective anterior and total posterior vagotomy. Severe post-vagotomy diarrhoea occurred after two of 58 selective anterior and total posterior vagotomies, whereas no case of diarrhoea was registered after bilateral selective vagotomy.