Portal hypertension in a western Indian hospital.

The profile of Portal Hypertension (PHT) in India is different from the west. Despite a good liver our patients are prone to die due to massive haematemesis as they are located far away from the referral centres. Drugs have a limited role and endoscopic sclerotherapy has its own limitations in our setting. Surgery (proximal lieno-renal shunt) is a one time treatment, removes the injury prone huge spleen and cures hypersplenism. We report our experience of 36 patients managed by this procedure.