ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of prophylactic central neck dissection (PCND) for stage cN0 papillary thyroid carcinoma. MethodsDatabases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2015), WanFang Data, CBM and CNKI were searched to collect the studies about total thyroidectomy (TT)+PCND versus TT alone for stage cN0 papillary thyroid carcinoma from inception to March 2015. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.1 software. ResultsA total of 10 studies involving 3 661 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with TT alone, TT+PCND had higher transient hypocalcemia (OR=2.50, 95%CI 2.05 to 3.03, P<0.000 01), higher permanent hypocalcemia (OR=3.11, 95%CI 1.82 to 5.30, P<0.000 1), and lower recurrence (OR=0.66, 95%CI 0.47 to 0.93, P=0.02). But there were no significant differences between two groups in transient laryngeal nerve palsy or permanent laryngeal nerve palsy. ConclusionTT+PCND is safe and feasible for treating stage cN0 papillary thyroid carcinoma when its indications are strictly controlled. However, due to limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to verify the abovementioned conclusion.