To clarify the surgical outcome of patients who underwent endoscopic hepatectomy (EH) compared to those of conventional open hepatectomy (OH) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Between 1999 and 2011, 269 HCC patients meeting the Milan criteria were divided into EH (n=89) and OH groups (n=180). To equalize the background covariates, a one-to-one propensity case-matched analysis was used.With propensity matching, 52 EH and 52 OH patients showed comparable preoperative clinical characteristics. The operation time (320 min, p=0.049) and the median blood loss (180 g, p0.001) was significantly lesser with EH, while the median postoperative hospital stay (11 days, p=0.002) was significantly shorter for EH. The cumulative disease-free and overall survival rates were equivalent in both groups.EH for HCC patients meeting the Milan criteria is less invasive and might provide an equivalent disease-free and overall survival when compared to conventional OH.