Objective:To evaluate the effect of anatomic resection (AR) and nonanatomic resection (NAR) on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients of China Liver Cancer Staging (CNLC) Ⅰa.Methods:PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched for articles on AR and NAR of CNLC Ⅰa stage HCC from January 2000 to March 2021. A meta-analysis was performed on patient characteristics, tumor characteristics, surgical procedures, postoperative pathological characteristics and long-term prognosis.Results:Of 9 case-control studies were included in this study, there were 2761 patients, with 1727 cases in the AR group and 1034 cases in the NAR group. When compared with the NAR group, the AR group had lower proportion of liver cirrhosis, lower ICG R15 value, higher proportion of Child-Pugh A grade, larger tumor diameter, higher proportion of microvascular invasion, longer operation time and higher intraoperative blood loss. The AR group had a better postoperative 5-year disease-free survival rate [ OR=1.54, 95% CI: 1.30-1.82, P<0.001] and a higher postoperative 5-year overall survival rate [ OR=1.27, 95% CI: 1.04-1.55, P=0.018]. Conclusion:AR is significantly better than NAR for preventing long-term recurrence and improving long-term survival in patients with CNLC Ⅰa stage HCC.