As a rule, the fate of patients suffering from chronic liver disease is determined by the most severe complications of portal hypertension (oesophageal variceal haemorrhage, hepatic coma). By means of laparoscopic transhepatic manometric measurements, we determined the pressures in the branches of the portal and hepatic veins of 161 patients suffering from chronic inflammation of the liver classified in various diagnostic groups. It was discovered that, in patients with pre-cirrhotic alcohol-induced damage, the pressure in the portal vein rises progressively with the increasing daily alcohol consumption. In all the various forms of chronic hepatitis, the portal vein pressures were higher than the upper limit of normalcy. A comparison of pressures among individual cirrhotic groups (alcoholic, pigmentary, congestive and hepatic cirrhoses) revealed a significant difference only between the hepatic and congestive forms of cirrhosis. The mortality rate was greatest among patients with hepatic cirrhosis, followed by the group with alcoholic cirrhosis.