Occasional contributions have appeared on the subject of disruption of wounds for a long time, but more than forty articles have been found in the American literature alone during the last few years as evidence of its importance. Because of these articles, or for other reasons, there has been a recent renewed interest in the subject, and we can say undeniably that disruption and postoperative hernia are on the decrease. Since postoperative hernia is so intimately associated with disruption, one cannot be satisfactorily discussed without the other.
Jenkins1 has reviewed the recent literature on wound disruption, bringing the reported cases up to date, and has added thirty-six cases from the University of Chicago surgical clinic to increase the number reported to 1,294. To these cases we have added forty-nine cases reported by Fallis2 and twenty-two by Glenn and Moore,3 with sixty-one of our own. A study of