Objective To study the impact of preoperative nutritional support on the clinical outcomes in patients with malnutrition who underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods 46 patients with malnutrition underwent TACE after operation for primary liver cancer were randomly divided into the experimental group (n =23) and the control group (n =23).The patients in the experimental group received preoperative nutritional support,but patients in the control group did not receive preoperative nutrition support.The preoperative and postoperative nutritional status,the incidences of postoperative complication,the liver function,the lengths of hospital stay,the costs of nutrition support and the costs of hospitalization were compared between the two groups.Results On the day before the operation,on postoperative day 1,day 7,and one month,the levels of serum albumin,and on the postoperative day 7 and one month,the levels of pre-albumin were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group,and the differences were significantly different [(38.4 ± 1.5) g/L vs.(32.8±0.8) g/L,(37.6±1.3) g/Lvs.(31.4±0.9) g/L,(39.0±1.6) g/L vs.(32.0±0.7) g/L,(39.8±2.2) g/L vs.(33.0±2.0) g/L,respectively,P＜0.05],[(160.0±14.6) mg/L vs.(131.0 ± 16.5) mg/L,(163.0 ± 17.7) mg/L vs.(135.0 ± 17.1) mg/L,respectively,P ＜0.05].The incidences of complication were significantly lower in the experimental group than that of the control group (52.2％ vs.91.3％,P ＜0.05).The length of hospital stay in the experimental group was shorter than that of the control group [(19.9 ± 2.0) d vs.(24.8 ± 2.7) d,P ＜ 0.05].The cost in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group [(20 108.9 ± 1 142.4) yuan vs.(23 174.1 ± 1 128.5) yuan,P ＜ 0.05].The cost in nutrition support in the experimental group was similar to that of the control group (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Preoperative nutritional support was helpful in reducing the incidence of postoperative complications,in shortening the length of hospital stay and in reducing medical costs.Nutritional support improved the nutritional status of the patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma after surgery and TACE.