The risks posed by NSAIDs on the gastrointestinal tract are well known. However, ways of minimising these risks are less clear. Can an effective prophylactic agent be found? Can new types of NSAIDs be developed that are less harmful to the gut? Where is the damage actually occurring? Answers to these, and other, questions were put forward at a session devoted to the risks and benefits of NSAIDs at the 10th World Congress of Gastroenterology [Los Angeles, USA; October 1994].