We compared the weight-reducing effect of diet and gastroplasty with that of diet alone in a randomized trial in 60 morbidly obese patients followed for two years. Initial median body weight was 120 kg in patients randomly assigned to gastroplasty plus diet and 115 kg in those assigned to diet alone. Maximum weight losses did not differ significantly between the groups (26.1 kg in the gastroplasty group and 22.0 kg in the group treated with diet alone, P greater than 0.05). The risk of a Type II error with a true difference larger than 9.5 kg was less than 5 per cent. However, the group treated with diet alone regained significantly more weight after maximum weight loss had been achieved, so that the gastroplasty group had a more favorable net outcome at two years (P less than 0.05).

Results after operations for acute obstruction of the large intestine due to cancer were analyzed during a 10-year period and compared with the results after operations for nonobstructive tumors during the same period. The following conclusions could be deduced: 1) Cancer is more often obstructive in the colon than in the rectum. Cancers of the splenic flexure are relatively more often obstructive than cancers in other parts of the colon. 2) Postoperative morbidity (and probably mortality) is higher and the five-year survival shorter in patients with obstructive cancers of the large intestine than in those without obstruction. Obstructive Dukes' A tumors are very few. 3) The early morbidity and mortality after acute cecostomy are probably not higher than after acute transversostomy, if the cecostomy wound is left open. The cecostomy carries a risk of peritoneal contamination. 4) Cecostomy does not relieve obstruction in 5-10 per cent of the patients, while transversostomy seems always to be effective. Emergency exploratory laparotomy for obstructive cancer of the large bowel instead of a blind cecostomy reduces the number of patients who need two operations by 10 per cent. 5) Hernias are frequent at the sites of previous spontaneously closed cecostomies. 6) Antibiotic bowel preparation seems not to be effective shortly after decompressive colostomy.

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Urologic complications arose in 23.7 per cent of 569 patients who underwent abdominoperineal or low anterior resection for anorectal cancer. No radomization of the two operations was attempted, low anterior resection being performed whenever resection 5 cm below the tumor was possible. Complications were more frequent after abdominoperineal resection and in men. Preoperative intravenous pyelography was performed in the cases of 541 of the patients, including 60 who underwent palliative colostomy. The pyelograms of 30 per cent of these patients were abnormal. The abnormalities were anatomic variations of the urinary tract in 25 per cent and urologic diseases in 75 per cent. None of the postoperative urologic complications was related to an abnormal preoperative pyelogram. No relation was found between the radicality of abdominoperineal and low anterior resection and the pyelographic signs of tumor involvement.

Of 327 patients treated for ulcerative proctocolitis, 165 underwent surgery and an ileorectal anastomosis was performed in 59: 19 of these patients were operated upon in one stage and 40 in two stages. In 13 cases the anastomoses had to be converted, 5 during the initial hospitalization and 8 during a later admission. Three patients developed carcinoma of the rectal stump. The median follow-up period was 15 years. It is concluded that ileorectal anastomosis has a place in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, but requires careful follow up of the patients.

The brown bowel syndrome (BBS) is a rare disease characterized by malabsorption and accumulation of lipofuscin in the smooth muscle cells of the muscularis externa of the small intestine. Recently, we incidentally observed a case of BBS in a colon operated on because of a neoplasm. Our ultrastructural investigation, which demonstrated changes in the mitochondria, further supports the significance of mitochondrial damage in BBS.

During a period of 12 months, 88 patients with severe haemorrhage from gastric or duodenal ulcers or from erosive gastritis completed a double-blind trial of either cimetidine or placebo. Only patients needing immediate blood transfusion were admitted to the trial. It was found that in patients with severe bleeding from gastric or duodenal ulcers neither the severity of bleeding nor the incidence of emergency surgery was reduced by cimetidine. Furthermore, the treatment did not improve the mortality rate. It is concluded that patients with severe bleeding from gastric or duodenal ulcers will not benefit from immediate treatment with intravenous cimetidine.