The prognosis of hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with cirrhosis is worse than in those without cirrhosis. In Korea, the hepatitis B virus prevalence rate is higher than in other countries. Therefore, we investigated patients' clinicopathologic and metabolic factors that affect the postoperative outcomes of hepatic resection for HCC in our hospital in Korea.

From August 2000 to December 2012, 171 HCC patients underwent hepatic resections at our institution. Two operative mortality cases and two short-term follow up cases were excluded. Data was collected from a retrospective chart review. There were 133 males (79.6%) and 34 females (20.3%), with a mean age of 58.2±10.2 years (range, 22-81 years), and the relationship between clinicopathologic and metabolic factors and the prognosis of patients with HCC undergoing hepatic resection were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analysis.

Hypertension, major surgery, perioperative transfusion, resection with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or cryoablation, and resection margin were risk factors for overall survival, and hypertension, albumin, resection with RFA or cryoablation, perioperative transfusion, and tumor size were risk factors for disease-free survival.

We found that hypertension, perioperative transfusion, and resection with RFA or cryoablation were risk factors for both disease-free and overall survival after hepatic resection in HCC patients. Further study is required to clarify the influence of metabolic and other clinicopathologic factors on the prognosis of HCC.