Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE),belonging to the early stage of hepatic encephalopathy (HE),is a disease of neuro-cognitive dysfunction without obvious symptoms.Early diagnosis and treatment of MHE is beneficial to patients in improving their liver function and quality of life so as to help prevent its progression to HE.In recent years,researches on MHE have gradually become a hot spot.This article is a review of the definition,the epidemiology survey,the pathogenesis,the diagnosis and the treatment of MHE in the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine research.