&NA;The records of 54 patients with documented cirrhosis who underwent colectomy between January 1970 and January 1984 were studied to assess the operative risk and to determine the preoperative predictive risk factors. In‐hospital mortality was 24 percent (13 patients), and postoperative complications occurred in 48 percent (26 patients). The risk of surgical intervention was significantly increased if encephalopathy, ascites, anemia, or hypoalbuminemia was present before operation. A simple operative risk index involving the presence of encephalopathy and ascites and the levels of hemoglobin and albumin is proposed to help distinguish a low‐risk subgroup in whom postoperative mortality was 12.8 percent from a high‐risk subgroup in whom postoperative mortality was 53.3 percent.