BACKGROUND: Nursing during the perioperative period of hepatobiliary surgery is essential in the treatment and rehabilitation of patients. Personalized nursing gives full consideration to the personal characteristics of patients and encourages patients to participate in making decisions. However, compared to traditional nursing, there is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of personalized nursing. This review sought to evaluate the effects of personalized nursing during the perioperative period of hepatobiliary surgery. METHODS: A meta-analysis was conducted of articles published from 2010 to 2021. To identify the relevant electronic publications, the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI, and Wanfang databases were searched for articles comparing the clinical efficacy of personalized nursing with that of traditional nursing. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to calculate the aggregated effect index. RESULTS: Of the 286 records retrieved from the search of the databases, 12 studies, comprising 1,039 patients, met the screening criteria. The meta-analysis showed that personalized nursing improved patients' levels of satisfaction with nursing (OR =6.871; 95% CI: 3.708-12.734), and decreased the incidence of adverse reactions significantly (OR =0.234; 95% CI: 0.153-0.357). Compared to traditional nursing, personalized nursing reduced patients' average hospitalization time, the time it took to get out of bed for the first time after surgery, the time it took to first eat after surgery, and the time it took to first exhaust after surgery. Additionally, patients who received personalized nursing had significantly reduced Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scores and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores than patients who received traditional nursing. DISCUSSION: The application of personalized nursing to patients undergoing hepatobiliary surgery during the perioperative period improved patients' level of satisfaction with nursing, effectively reduced the incidence of adverse reactions, accelerated the recovery of hepatobiliary function after surgery, and relieved anxiety and depression; thus, personalized nursing is worthy of clinical application.