From 1983 to 1991, 42 patients were operated on for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) complicating cirrhosis. Five presented with spontaneous rupture of the tumour: three had posthepatitis B and two non-A non-B cirrhosis. By contrast, 65 per cent of patients with non-ruptured HCC had alcoholic cirrhosis (P < 0.01). Laparotomy was carried out on an emergency basis (four patients) or after a 12-h delay (one) because of haemodynamic instability. Liver resection was performed in four cases (two wedge resections, one segmentectomy III, one extended right hepatectomy) and in the fifth patient hepatic artery ligation was performed. Bleeding was controlled after all four resections with one postoperative death, while the patient treated by ligation died during operation. Of the three surviving patients after liver resection, two died, 6 and 12 months after surgery. One patient is alive with recurrent tumour 43 months after extended right hepatectomy. The present data, combined with analysis of 250 cases of ruptured HCC from the literature, indicate that emergency resection is the treatment of choice in patients with limited tumour and preserved liver function. Transcatheter hepatic artery embolization, if available, is the next choice for high-risk patients or before surgical resection of the tumour. More conservative surgical approaches are the last choice because of poor reported results.