During the past 20 years medical therapy of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) has dramatically improved. Simultaneously there has been a significant improvement in living and dietary habits. Quite presumably, all these significant events are reflected in the incidence and results of surgery for peptic ulcerations.
To study the incidence, methods and mortality of surgery for PUD.
The nationwide data between 1987 and 1999 were obtained from the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health. In the analysis the codes of the ICD 9-10 were used.
The annual incidence of elective surgery for PUD decreased from 15.7 to 1.7 operations (per 10(5) inhabitants, mean of 2 consecutive years) between 1987 and 1999 (p