Abstract: To investigate the change of esophageal motility in cirrhotic patients with hepatitis virus. Esophageal menometry was performed in 40 cirrhotic patients (included 10 cases with non-esophageal varices, with small, middle and large esophageal varices respectively) with hepatitis virus and in 20 health volunteers. The mean resting pressure in lower esophageal sphincter was found no difference among the 3 groups and the 5 groups above. The perisaltic amplitude (PA) and duration (PD) of primary peristaltic wave in distal esophagus showed significant difference among above groups ( P <0 05) . Cirrhosis groups with EV, middle and large EA revealed obvious decrease of PA and increase of PD compared with NC group ( P <0 05～<0 01) .The peristaltic velocity (PV) of primary peristaltic waves in proximal and distal esophagus showed significant difference among 3 groups and 5 groups ( P <0 01～<0 05) . These findings suggest that the changes of esophageal motality were dysfunction of the esophageal body and this might due to the mechanical effect of the presence of varicese.