Two years ago,1 we reported a low mortality rate following a series of operations on patients with diabetes. After two more years' experience in this type of work, we are now reporting the combined results of four years of effort to minimize the mortality rate in such cases. Between Oct. 1, 1921, and Oct. 1,
1925, 667 operations were performed on 497 patients; 363 of the operations were of a minor type, and 304 of a major type (tables 1 and 2). In the first group, two deaths occurred; in the second, eighteen. During the last three years in the Mayo Clinic, operations have been performed, regardless of the presence of diabetes, on the assumption that the diabetes itself, if properly controlled, would not increase the risk of operation. For three years, therefore, no patient has been refused necessary surgical procedures because of diabetes.
In every case there was