The present status of vagotomy (based on a paper read to the European Society for Surgical Research in Dublin, April, 1976).

With any operation there are three requirements. First, the mortality must be minimal. In our series during the past ten years there have been 1,033 vagotomies of various types with two deaths, a rate of 0.19 per cent. There are many other published series with a comparably low mortality. Secondly, there must be an acceptably low incidence of recurrent ulcer and, thirdly, undesirable side effects should, as far as possible, be eliminated. It is these second and third points which demand our attention.