Role of interventional radiology in the management of portal hypertension：current status WU Xing-jiang , LI Jie-shou. Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Nanjiang Unit, People’s Liberation Army, Nanjing 210002,China Corresponding author:WU Xing-jiang, E-mail: wxj_wxj@sohu.com Abstract The interventional radiology plays a well-established role in the management of patients with complications of portal hypertension such as variceal bleeding or refractory ascites. Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is an interventional radiology technique that has shown a 90% success rate to decompress the portal circulation。 TIPS has been in use for more than 20 years to treat the complications of portal hypertension. TIPS has been used in thousands of patients with liver disease worldwide. Portosystemic encephalopathy and stent dysfunction are TIPS major drawbacks. The improved results achieved with covered-stents might expand the currently accepted recommendations for TIPS use. Balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO) is another interventional radiology technique that can prevent and treat gastric variceal bleeding. The procedure has been widely performed in Japan.The bleeding control rate of gastric varices after B-RTO has been described as greater than 90%.