In treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)patients with advanced cirrhosis,one of the most difficult problems is concomitant esophageal varices and hypersplenism.Whether these conditions should be treated surgically in association with HCC resection is still in debate.To elucidate whether esophageal devascularization or splenectomy is beneficial when simultaneously performed with liver resection in HCC patients with both varices and hypersplenism,HCC patients (n = 184) with esophageal varices and hypersplenism received one of the three treatments:simultaneous liver resection and esophageal devascularization (Group Ⅰ,n=41);simultaneous liver resection and splenectomy (Group Ⅱ,n = 61);liver resection only (Group Ⅲ,n = 82).The incidences of postoperative complications of the three groups were 31.7%,29.5% and 24.4%,respectively,with no significant difference among them.The 5-year tumor-free survival rates for the group Ⅰ,group Ⅱ and group Ⅲ were 34.1%,36.1% and 37.8%,respectively.Variceal bleeding caused death by only 4.2% in group Ⅰ,but by 14.3% in group Ⅱ and 23.2% in group Ⅲ.The survival rates in the group Ⅰ and the group Ⅱ were comparable to those in the group Ⅲ,however,the recurrences of postoperative fatal variceal bleeding in group Ⅰ and group Ⅱ were significantly lower than those in group Ⅲ.The results suggest that HCC patients with esophageal varices and hypersplenism should undergo hepatic resection plus esophageal devascularization or splenectomy if radical resection of HCC can be expected.