Abstract Sixty-eight patients with bleeding oesophageal varices due to cirrhosis of the liver who have had an emergency portasystemic shunt are reviewed. The reasons for the emergency shunt surgery and the results are described and discussed. The low postoperative mortality is attributed to careful case selection. Apart from clinical and serological factors, the importance of the bromsulphthalein excretion test is stressed. Emergency shunts are now undertaken by the author in patients whose serum bilirubin is less than 2.5/100 ml and bromsulphthalein retention less than 10 per cent in 30 minutes. This is in marked contrast to the author's previous series in which there was a 30 per cent mortality. The poor results in patients treated conservatively and the disparity between the author's results and those of other reported series are reviewed and discussed.