BACKGROUND:?Portal? vein? thrombosis? (PVT)? is? a? potential?lethal? complication? and? may? have? negative? influence? on? the?prognosis? after? splenectomy? in? patients? with? liver? cirrhosis.?Prevention? and? timely? detection? of? PVT? are? quite? significant.?There?is?a?lack?of?knowledge?about?the?clinical?features?and?risk?factors?of?PVT.?Our?study?aimed?to?investigate?the?risk?factors?and? clinical? characteristics? of? PVT? in? order? to? figure? out? the?high-risk?individuals. METHODS:?We? collected? the? clinical? data? of? 472? consecutive?patients?with?non-neoplastic?liver?cirrhosis?who?had?undergone?splenectomy? from? January? 2008? to? December? 2010? in? our?institution.?Clinical?and?surgical?characteristics?of?patients?who?developed?PVT?postoperatively?and?those?who?did?not?develop?PVT? were? compared.? Univariate? and? multivariate? analyses?of? risk? factors? of? PVT? were? performed.? The? mortality? and?rebleeding?rate?of?the?patients?were?also?evaluated. RESULTS:?Of?the?472?patients,?52?were?excluded?from?the?study.?PVT? developed? in? 71? (71/420,? 16.9%)? patients.? Multivariate?analysis?revealed?that?wider?preoperative?portal?vein?diameter,?postoperative? thrombocytosis,? prolonged? prothrombin? time?and? periesophagogastric? devascularization? were? significantly?correlated?with?PVT?development?[odds?ratio?(OR):?5.701,?2.807,?1.850?and?2.090,?respectively].?The?incidence?of?PVT?in?patients?who?took?antiplatelet?drugs?was?not?lower? than?that?in?those?who?did?not.?Follow-up?showed?that?patients?in?the?PVT?group?had?a?tendency?towards?reduced?overall?survival?but?it?was?not?statistically? significant.? Gastrointestinal? bleeding? occurred?more?often?in?the?PVT?group?than?that?in?the?non-PVT?group?(P=0.044). CONCLUSIONS:?Wider? preoperative? portal? vein? diameter,?postoperative? thrombocytosis,? prolonged? prothrombin? time?and?periesophagogastric?devascularization?are?independent?risk?factors?of?PVT.?PVT?is?related?with?higher?risk?of?postoperative?gastrointestinal?hemorrhage?but?has?no?significant?impact?on?the?overall?survival.