Total Gastrectomy

A DISCUSSION of carcinoma of the stomach should not fail to emphasize three points: the earliest symptoms of the disease are often mild and insidious and may consist of nothing more than indigestion, loss of appetite or easy fatigability; there is a great need for earlier diagnosis and operation if the survival rates are to be improved; and carcinoma of the stomach is responsible for more deaths per year than cancer of any other organ and for approximately 30 per cent of the total annual cancer mortality.Many cases — 50 per cent in Ogilvie's1 series — were obviously hopeless when first . . .