Objective To evaluate long-term effectiveness of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) for children with idiopathic short stature (ISS). Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about rhGH in treating ISS published from 1985 to 2010 were searched in PubMed, ScienceDirect, EBSCOHost, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI and VIP. According to the Cochrane Handbook, two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, assessed methodological quality, and conducted meta-analysis using RevMan 5.0 software. Results A total of 11 RCTs involving 607 ISS children were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with the blank/placebo control group after 1-year treatment, the rhGH group resulted in a significant increase in height standard deviation score (SDS) (MD=0.29, 95%CI 0.03 to 0.54, P=0.03), growth velocity (MD=2.68 cm/year, 95%CI 1.70 to 3.65, Plt;0.000 01), and adult SDS (MD=0.46, 95%CI 0.29 to 0.63, Plt;0.000 01). Conclusion rhGH can effectively promote the growth of ISS children. But due to the limitation of quality and small sample size of the included studies, its effectiveness still needs to be further proved by more high quality RCTs.