Endoscopic treatment (ET) is frequently used to prevent variceal rebleeding but this still occurs in about 50% of patients. Recently, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) has been compared with ET in several trials. Using a meta-analysis, we evaluated randomized trials comparing TIPS to ET assessing prevention of rebleeding, survival, and the effects on resource use and the quality of patients' lives. Medical databases were searched between January 1988 and January 1999 as well as published citations and conference proceedings. Sensitivity analyses for type of publication, methodological quality score, mean duration of follow-up, type of ET, etiology, and severity of liver disease were performed. Eleven randomized trials involving 811 patients fulfilled the selection criteria. The median follow-up ranged from 10 to 32 months. Variceal bleeding is one of the most frequent and severe complications of portal hypertension. 1 It is associated with a high mortality during the acute episode and a high rate of recurrence in the patients who survive. 2 Thus, many studies have focused on therapeutic strategies to decrease the first occurrence of variceal bleeding, to increase survival from the acute episode, and to prevent rebleeding. There is a general consensus that all patients who have previously bled from varices should have secondary therapy to prevent further variceal bleeding. 3 Prevention of rebleeding was obtained initially by surgical portal systemic shunts and more recently by endoscopic treatments (ET) and drugs. 3 Surgical shunts are the most efficacious modality for prevention of rebleeding, but they are associated with an operative mortality, particularly in decompensated cirrhotics, and a high incidence of encephalopathy. 3 Endoscopic sclerotherapy has been shown to significantly reduce the rebleeding rate compared with controls or -blockers and to improve survival compared with controls. 3 The combination of sclerotherapy and -blockers seems to be superior to -blockers alone, but not significantly different than sclerotherapy alone in both prevention of rebleeding and improvement of survival. 3 Results from a meta-analysis showed that surgical shunts were superior to sclerotherapy for prevention of rebleeding, but there was no difference in survival. 3 In the last decade, endoscopic band ligation was introduced and became the ET of choice for prevention of rebleeding in many centers. 4,5 However, rebleeding occurs in about 50% of cirrhotic patients despite ET. 4,6,7 Thus, new therapeutic options are needed.The transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a recent therapeutic radiological procedure that involves the creation of a communication between the hepatic vein and an intrahepatic branch of the portal vein, thus decompressing the portal venous system. 8 TIPS is essentially a side-toside portacaval shunt, which does not require surgical intervention and thus has a lower mortality associated with the procedure. 9 Although TIPS was introduced into clinical practice only i...