This review focuses on the mechanisms involved in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion(I/R)injury and effective therapeutic treatments associated with clinical anesthesia.Although hepatocytes are the main target cells in the whole process of I/R injury,Kupffer cells,as an initiator of harmful cascades,may play a vital role by releasing some proinflammatory mediators and reactive oxygen species in the early phase of I/R injury.The subsequent activation and recruitment of neutrophils are also involved in inflammatory response and immune activation.According to the above mechanisms,a number of strategies have been put forward in some experimental and clinical studies.Most of these therapeutic treatments originated from the generation of oxygen radicals and cytokines,the infiltration of neutrophils,the impairment of microcirculation and so on.Furthermore,increasing evidence has suggested that short periods of ischemic preconditioning have protective effects against liver I/R injury.Depending on these investigations,pharmacological preconditioning and clinical anesthesia-related effective methods have been proposed.A better understanding of the present progress on experimental statistics will bring about novel therapeutic treatments for the improvement of liver surgeries and transplantation.