Abstract: Objective To observe the effect of interferon-alpha，lamivudine and oxymatrine treatment for hepatitis B-induced hepatic failure survivals． Methods One hundred and ten subacute or acute-on-chronic hepatic failure survivals（group A） received interferon alpha（n=39），lamivudine（n=37），or combination of lamivudine and oxymatrine（n=34）therapy for six months，and one hundred and ten chronic hepatic failure survivals（group B）received lamivudine（n=53），or combination of lamivudine and oxymatrine（n=57）therapy for six months，respectively． All patients were followed-up for eighteen months. Results At the end of follow-up，all patients in group A survived and 25.6%（10/39）of survivals with interferon alpha treatment switched to lamivudine therapy，and 21.1%（15/71）with lamivudine or lamivudine and oxymatrine to adefovir dipivoxil therapy，while in group B five patients （9.4％）receiving lamivudine，and six（10.5％）patients receiving combinational therapy died and 18.2%（18/99）of survivals switched to adefovir therapy；80% of survivals with lamivudine treatment in both groups had their serum HBV DNA loss and the HbeAg negativity and/or HBeAg/anti-Hbe seroconversion rates in patients with interferon alpha or lamivudine and oxymatrine treatment were not higher than those in survivals with lamivudine alone. Conclusion Long term administration of nucleos（t）ides analogues might block the progress of hepatic fibrosis in hepatitis B-induced liver failure survivals，however，the effects of interferon alpha or matrine treatment in this settings maybe due to relatively short-term administration needs to be further investigated.

Key words: Hepatitis B, Liver failure, Lamivudine, Interferon alpha, Matrine