1.   Clinical indications included encephalopathy, recurrent variceal haemorrhage unresponsive to therapy, repeated episodes of bacterial peritonitis or intractable ascites.

2.   The patient was monitored carefully for recurrent haemorrhage and controlled by endoscopy every day.

3.   Before the endoscopic era, the diagnosis was rarely made before operation or even at the time of operation and recurrent haemorrhage with a fatal outcome was common.

4.   An unexpected finding of this study was the high incidence of recurrent variceal haemorrhage among those patients undergoing oesophageal transection and gastric devascularisation.

5.   Subsequent reports have shown TIPSS to be a safe and effective method for treating recurrent variceal haemorrhage and cases of encephalopathy after TIPSS are rare.

6.   These results suggest that the heater probe is an effective and safe procedure in the prevention of recurrent haemorrhage in peptic ulcer with a non-bleeding visible vessel.

7.   Our results suggest that heater probe is an effective and safe procedure in the prevention of recurrent haemorrhage in peptic ulcer with a non-bleeding visible vessel.