Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of bursectomy in radical gastrectomy. Methods: The literature comparing gastrectomy with bursectomy and standard gastrectomy for gastric cancer publicly available by October 2014 was extensively searched. After screening for inclusion, quality assessment and extraction of relevant clinical variables, Meta-analysis of pooled data was performed by the RevMan 5.0 software. Results: Seven studies were finally included involving 1 224 patients, of whom 486 cases underwent gastrectomy with bursectomy (bursectomy group) and 738 cases underwent standard gastrectomy (non-bursectomy group). Results of Meta-analysis showed that the incidence of trauma-related complications in bursectomy group compared with non-bursectomy group was increased (OR=2.1, 95% CI=1.05–4.21, P=0.04); the incidence of overall complications and incidences of lleus, anastomotic complications and lung infection were similar between the two groups (all P>0.05); the postoperative 3- and 5-year survival rate (OR=1.35; 95% CI=0.82–2.21; OR=1.03; 95% CI=0.82–1.63) as well as recurrence rate (OR=0.90, 95% CI=0.66–1.22) had no significant difference between the two group (all P>0.05). Conclusion: Application of bursectomy in D1 and D2 radical gastrectomy may increase the risk of trauma-related complications, and offers no benefit for improvement of postoperative survival or tumor recurrence of the patients.