Fifty consecutive unselected patients presenting with acute haematemesis and melaena from endoscopically confirmed bleeding oesophageal varices were treated by one-stage transabdominal oesophageal transection with gastro-oesophageal devascularization and splenectomy. According to Child's classification, 15 were Grade A, 29 Grade B and six Grade C. The mortality rate was 10 per cent. Postoperative complications included gastric fundal leak (4 per cent), pleural effusion (4 per cent), subphrenic abscess (2 per cent), atelectasis (2 per cent) and pneumothorax (2 per cent). Although five patients (10 per cent) complained of transient dysphagia during follow-up, only one (2 per cent) presented evidence of stricture at the site of oesophageal transection. Clinical encephalopathy was not present in the surviving patients in the postoperative period. No recurrence of bleeding has been recorded in the surviving patients over a follow-up period of 2-3 years.