Our experiences with subtotal oesophagectomy by blunt dissection in 20 patients suffering from recurrent bleeding of oesophageal varices are reported. The lethality of the elective operation (16 patients) was 6.25 %. The operation should not be performed in emergency cases. As there were no severe complications, oesophagectomy is recommended in cases where a shunt operation is not performable for various reasons (or because it is refused), and when patients can only be kept from further recurrent bleeding by repeated sclerozing therapy.