There are different opinions in respect to the main sources in upper gastrointestinal bleeding in hepatic cirrhosis. Some authors claim that ruptured esophageal varices are the cause of most of the hemorrhages. Recently, characteristic lesions have been showed in the gastric mucosa in portal hypertension (congestive gastropathy), and many believe that they are frequently the origin of the bleeding. We reviewed the records of 195 episodes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhosis, with endoscopy performed within 12 hours of entry, and report here the endoscopic findings and the bleeding sites. We also investigated the relation between the etiology and functional class of the hepatic disease and the bleeding source. We observed variceal hemorrhage in 52.2% of cases; by gastroduodenal mucosal lesions in 13.8%; by gastric and duodenal ulcers in 13.8%; undetermined origin in 14.8% (due to coexistence of two or more lesions, without active bleeding). We found no differences between alcoholic and nonalcoholic cirrhotics in the bleeding sources. Furthermore, the bleeding sites were not different either in child A, B and C patients. In contrast, in major hemorrhages, esophageal varices were more frequently the origin (73.5%) than in minor ones (40.4%) (p < 0.002). The mortality was significantly higher in CHild C group (25%), than in groups B (14.3%) and A (2.3%) (p < 0.05 and p < 0.002, respectively). We recommend to carry out early endoscopy in every cirrhotic patient suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding, by skilled performers who are able to recognize the gastric red signs, before making a decision about potentially dangerous therapeutic measures, such as surgery, balloon tamponade, etc.