Abstract: Objective: To demonstrate the criteria of hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to provide evidence for controlling indication of surgery, guiding treatment and improving therapeutic effects. Methods:Using the key-words as hepatectomy ver resection and liver neoplasms/hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), we searched CNKI and NCBI bioinformatics databases for published articles on this topic. The literature review was done in order to summarize the crite-ria of hepatectomy for HCC and to demonstrate its key factors. The prognosis of postoperative HCC patients was com -pared and the potential causes of differential prognosis were discussed. Results: Criteria of hepatectomy for HCC patients can be broadly classified into 2 groups: curative resection group and palliative resection group. The relationship between the surgical margin and the curative effect was analyzed. With recent advances in molecular biology, researchers have ad -opted new criteria for hepatectomy. The 5- route method for HCC hepatectomy was presented based on the trichotomy of HCC (pathological curative resection, clinical curative resection，and palliative resection), including the division of pathologi -cal curative resection into absolute curative resection (without metastatic potential) and relative resection (with metastatic potential), and the division of clinical curative resection into reactive resection (related markers decreased in short duration, such as alpha fetoprotein) and non-reactive resection (persistence of aberrant markers), and palliative resection. Prognosis of HCC patients who underwent curative resection was better than that in patients treated with palliative resection. Studies showed that hepatectomy could enhance the invasive and metastatic potential of residual tumors without effective interven-tion strategies, which may be related to HCC dissemination in early stages and alteration of biological features in residual HCC induced by resection.Conclusion:As one of the most effective therapies, curative liver resection is a widely accepted treatment for HCC patients. The determination of criteria of hepatectomy is beneficial for evaluating clinical data and prognosis of HCC patients treated with surgery and for screening effective therapeutic strategies for hepatectomized patients.