Objective To explore the influencing factors of hepatoduodenal ligament lymph node (HDLN), and to analyze the prognostic significance of HDLN metastasis for gastric cancer patients undergone radical gastrectomy. Methods The records and pathological data of gastric cancer patients treated in our hospital from Jan. 2010 to Jun. 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The total number of patients included in this study was 273, of which 96 had lymph node metastasis of the HDLN. Results of unconditional logistic regression analysis showed that age, T staging, M staging, and pathological staging were influencing factors for HDLN metastasis (P<0.05). Results of log-rank test showed that, pathological staging and HDLN status were influencing factors for prognosis of patients undergone radical gastrectomy (P<0.05). For Ⅳ pathological staging patients, the overall survival situation was better in Ⅰ–Ⅲ pathological staging+positive-HDLN group and Ⅰ–Ⅲ pathological staging+negative-HDLN group (P<0.05). For patients in Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ pathological staging, patients in positive-HDLN group had bad survival situation than those of negative-HDLN group in the same pathological staging (P<0.001), and patients in Ⅲ pathological staging+positive-HDLN had the worst prognosis (P=0.001). Conclusion The status of HDLN can be used as an independent prognostic factor for prognosis of gastric cancer.