Long-term follow-up (median: 37 months; range: 19 to 68) of the 116 patients (56 sclerotherapy, 60 control group) entered into a controlled trial of endoscopic variceal sclerotherapy has shown a total of 18 deaths in the sclerotherapy group, including five from variceal bleeding compared with 32 deaths in the control group (p less than 0.01), of which 25 were from variceal hemorrhage (p less than 0.001). Survival as assessed by cumulative life analysis was significantly better in those treated by sclerotherapy (p less than 0.001). Both the cumulative proportion of patients rebleeding and the total number of episodes of variceal hemorrhage were also significantly less in the sclerotherapy group (p less than 0.01). Recurrence of varices was observed in 27 of 45 patients in whom variceal obliteration was initially observed at a median of 11 months (range: 2 to 27) later, although in only 12 of these did bleeding recur and was the cause of death in one.