Abstract
Peptic ulceration of the stomach and duodenum is pparently a disease of modern times. While the older writers during the days of Aesculapius and Celsus occasionally mentioned the disease, it was not until 1829 that Cruveilheir gave the first clear description of this entity, and this later led to the term "Round ulcer of Cruveilheir(l) Patterson (2) states that 12 per cent of the American population have peptic ulcers at some period of their lives. Doll studied 6,047 people in London and found 5.8 per cent to have or have had an ulcer. Robertson and Hargis (3) noted healed or active gastric or duodenal ulcers in 11.85 per cent of 2,000 cadavers examined at the Mayo Clinic. | The annual mortality rate in the United States is 10,000, denoting the serious aspect of the complications of this disease. It is the twelfth most costly disease in terms of disability and for these economic and humanitarian reasons, this disease becomes a challenge to the medical profession. Males have been found to have peptic ulcers four times more often than females, and the duodenum is the site of the ulceration nine times more than the stomach.