Objective: Our aim was to investigate the influence of individual nursing care (INC) on postoperative recovery and negative emotions of primary liver cancer (PLC). Methods: A total of 104 patients with PLC surgery, admitted to Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2015 to March 2017, were selected and randomly divided into control group and experimental group with 52 cases in each group. Patients in control group simply received conventional nursing care interventions and patients in experimental group received INC on the basis of conventional nursing care. Postoperative recovery and negative emotions were compared between the two groups. Results: Postoperative exhaust time, peritoneal drainage time, ambulation time, and hospitalization time after nursing care in experimental group were significantly shorter than those in control group (all P<0.001). Levels of indirect bilirubin and direct bilirubin in experimental group were significantly lower than those in control group and serum albumin level was significantly higher than that of control group after nursing care (all P<0.001). Incidence of postoperative complications in experimental group (7.69%) was significantly lower than in control group (23.08%, chi(2)=4.73, P<0.001). After nursing, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Self-Rating Depression Scale scores of negative emotional indicators in experimental group were significantly lower than those of control group (both P<0.001). Conclusion: INC could promote early recovery and reduce negative emotions after surgery in patients with PLC.