ObjectiveTo systematically review the effectiveness of traditional morphological embryo screening method and other screening methods. MethodsWe electronically searched PubMed, EMbase, Web of Knowledge, CBM, WanFang Data and CNKI, for studies about the effectiveness of traditional morphological embryo screening method and other screening methods from inception to July 1st, 2013. Two reviewers independently screened studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using the software RevMan 5.1. ResultsA total of 4 studies involving 951 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, for the traditional morphological embryo screening method, when compared with the NIR method and CCS method, there were no significant differences in clinical pregnancy rate (OR=0.94, 95%CI 0.57 to 1.53, P=0.80) and live birth rate (OR=0.90, 95%CI 0.60 to 1.37, P=0.63). However, significant difference was found for the embryos fragment rate (OR=0.40, 95%CI 0.27 to 0.59, P < 0.000 01). ConclusionThe current evidence shows that, compared with other methods, the traditional morphological embryo screening method could significantly reduce the embryos fragments rate. The results are needed to be further validate by more high-quality and large-scale studies.