Resection of the small intestine in the presence of intestinal obstruction.

Resection of the small bowel in the presence of intestinal obstruction has a high mortality, and from time to time surgeons try modifications of the classical methods of resection and anastomosis in an endeavour to reduce the mortality. It is well known that no one individual surgeon has, during a surgical lifetime, sufficient personal experience of this condition to form any opinion based on any large number of cases, for as his experience grows he performs fewer of these operations, the majority being performed by younger surgeons-surgical registrars and resident surgical officers. The object of this communication is to endeavour to present some of the recent trends which have become apparent, in resection of the small bowel, and to find out the procedures which are being used at the present time.