Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of perioperative antiviral therapy on surgical complications of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Totally 125 patients with HCC treated in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery in our hospital from January 2012 to October 2015 were selected for the study. According to the preoperative HBV-DNA load, the patients were divided into low load (LL) group and high load (HL) group. Some patients in the HL group were given antiviral therapy (AVT group), the other patients were not given (UN group). The postoperative liver function, HBV-DNA load, complications and pathological factors related to complications were compared. Results The indexes of liver function after treatment showed a general trend of initial elevation, then reduced. HBV-DNA load was decreased after treatment in the AVT group. The incidences of complications were lower and hospital stay was shorter in the LL group and the AVT group than in the UN group. Multivariate analysis showed that Child classification, tumor size and lack of antiviral therapy were independent risk factors for postoperative complications. Conclusions HCC patients with high HBV-DNA load have increased incidences of postoperative complications. Perioperative antiviral treatment can reduce postoperative complications and promote patient recovery.