Aims: A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the safety and efficiency of bursectomy for patients with gastric cancer. Method: A literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases, -China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases, China Science and Technology Journal(CSTJ) database and ASCO proceedings for clinical research that compared bursectomy with non-bursectomy published before July 2017. Operative time, blood loss, the number of dissected lymph nodes, complications, mortality, length of hospital stay, recurrence rate, overall survival and recurrence-free survival were compared using weighted mean differences(WMD) and relative risks(RR). RevMan 5.3. software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Fifteen studies including 4858 patients were included for the analysis (2687 in the bursectomy group(BT), 2171 in the non-bursectomy group(NB)). The bursectomy group was associated with longer operative time (P<0.00001)and more blood loss (P = 0.003)compared with NB. No statistically significant difference was observed in the number of dissected lymph nodes (P = 0 0.08), the length of hospital stay (P = 0 0.30), rate of complications(P = 0.07), mortality (P = 0.15), recurrence rate (P = 0.44)between the bursectomy group and the non-bursectomy group. Bursectomy did not have a significant effect on overall survival and recurrence-free survival. Conclusions: Gastrectomy with bursectomy is not superior to non-bursectomy in terms of survival,bursectomy is not recommended as a standard surgery for resectable cT3 or cT4 gastric cancer. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd, BASO similar to The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.