This is a retrospective study of 29 cirrhotic patients who underwent surgery for haemorrhage or ascites due to portal hypertension, carried out to look for any correlation between histological findings and clinical outcome. When Mallory's bodies and signs of activation are found, indicating that the cirrhosis is progressing, the clinical results are often discouraging. A careful choice of which cirrhosis patients are likely to gain from surgery should take account of selective histological criteria as well as full clinical and haemodynamic data.