Of 168 consecutive patients presenting with a perforated duodenal, pyloric or prepyloric ulcer, 123 patients were judged fit or suitable for parietal cell vagotomy (PCV). It was, however, only added to simple closure in 67 patients with a previous history of dyspepsia prone to develop recurrent ulceration, whereas 56 patients with no previous symptoms and an established low risk of recurrence were managed by simple closure only. In the comparable groups, postoperative morbidity did not differ, entailing mortality rates of 4.5% and 5.3% following PCV or simple closure only. An overall clinical grading of 106 patients (91%) followed up (median 4 years, range 1-10 years) revealed equally good results. In patients with previous dyspepsia and an established high recurrence rate if managed by simple closure only, a satisfactory reduction of the recurrence rate was found when PCV was added to suture closure (cumulative recurrence rate 20.7 +/- SD 69 compared to 29% +/- SD 9.4 following simple closure in patients with no previous dyspeptic symptoms). It is concluded that in patients with a perforating duodenal ulcer deemed fit or suitable for PCV, assessed by good clinical judgement, PCV does not carry an added risk and provides a fairly good protection against recurrent ulceration.