SummaryMalignant hypertension and hypertensive crisis remain serious clinical situations necessitating vigourous emergency treatment.Each of the clinical pictures:—severe hypertension with encephalopathy and/or fundoscopic abnormalities,—acute lung edema and/or myocardial infarction,—dissecting aneurysm of the aorta,—renal failure,—eclampsia,—postoperative bleeding,asks for a different management.The use of one single drug for the treatment of all hypertensive emergencies is no longer tenable.Table 3 provides a guideline for the use of the different drugs in hypertensive emergencies.These data are derived from our own experience and from the current medical litterature (December 1980).