Portal hypertension is one of the most devastating complications of chronic liver disease, the first episode of variceal bleeding makes a crucial turning point in the natural history of the disease this study was designed to compare the effectiveness of prophylactic EVL to SLS in the primary prevention of oesophageal variceal bleeding.SLS did not offer any advantage over EVL with respect to obliteration of oesophageal varices and one year survival of patients . Furthermore SLS entailed higher recirrence rate, higher cost and longer time till obliteration of varices is achieved, so EVL is preferred to SLS in the primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding .