Portal hypertension is a relatively common condition, the complications of which are frequently life threatening. Patients with portal hypertension represent an important por- tion of the daily clinical work of abdominal radiologists, gastroenterologists and abdominal surgeons. During the past two decades the development of new radiological devices and of new percutaneous image-guided treatment methods has resulted in fundamental changes in the clinical management of patients with portal hypertension. During the same period tremen- dous progress was achieved in the visualization of the...