ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of telbivudine (TEV) combined with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), so as to provide references for clinical practice and research. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including The Cochrane Library (Issue 7, 2013), PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data from inception to August 21st, 2013, for the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Other sources were also retrieved. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the quality of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 software. ResultsA Total of 11 RCTs involving 1 010 patients were included. The trial group were given TEV combined with ADV, while the control group were given TEV alone or ADV alone. The results of metaanalysis showed that, the combined use was superior to TEV alone or ADV alone in improving HBV-DNA negative rates at 12-, 24-, 48-weeks, HBeAg negative rates at 12-, 24-, 48-weeks, and ALT recovery rates at 12-, 24-weeks (P < 0.05). The results of qualitative analysis showed that, the trial group had a lower drug resistance rate, and both were alike in the incidence of adverse reaction. ConclusionCompared with TEV alone or ADV alone, TEV combined with ADV could improve the clinical efficacy of treating CHB which is also fairly safe. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, the aforementioned conclusion still needs to be further verified by conducting more large-scale and high quality RCTs.