McDowell HR, Chuah CS, Tripathi D, et al. - In patients with cirrhosis with portal hypertension, primary prophylaxis of variceal haemorrhage with non‐selective beta blockers (specifically carvedilol) or variceal band ligation (VBL) is standard of care, so researchers assessed mortality in a cohort of patients randomized previously to either carvedilol or VBL. Retrospectively, 152 patients were enrolled in a multi‐center randomized controlled trial between April 7, 2000 and June 24, 2006, to determine the effectiveness of VBL vs carvedilol in the prevention of first variceal bleeding. In this study with baseline features well matched between the carvedilol (n = 77) and VBL (n = 75) groups, 152 patients were included. Such data indicate that for patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, carvedilol provides a significant survival advantage (7.8 years vs 4.2 years in the VBL group). The disparity in all‐cause and liver‐related mortality indicates that this survival benefit may not be entirely liver‐related. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these important findings.