Contributions of alimentary tract surgery to modern infection control.

The continuing contributions of alimentary tract operations to a clarification of the clinical utility of devices, procedures, and medications for control of surgical wound infection have been crucial to the advancement of modern surgical practice. Indeed, the foregoing essay has outlined several areas in which additional analysis and clarification should be able to further define valuable methods and combinations thereof. It has been the willingness of the individual surgeon oriented to the alimentary tract to include his operations and his patients in these kinds of rigid trials that have, indeed, allowed a final emergence of these useful adjuncts to the surgical armamentarium, an effect that now pervades all surgical practice.