Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that frequently occurs in the course of acute or chronic liver diseases or an abnormal portal shunt. Astrocytes play a critical role in the pathogenesis of HE. In recent years, HE has been found to be accompanied by morphological and functional changes of astrocytes and HE is effectively alleviated by drugs that act on astrocytes. Therefore, astrocytes may be a potential therapeutic target for HE. This article reviews the role of astrocytes in HE to provide new clinical ideas for treatment.