Objective To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) and ventriculal peritoneum shunt (VPS) for hydrocephalus. Methods A fully recursive literature search was conducted in PubMed (1996 to June, 2011), EMBASE (1996 to June, 2011), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 3, 2011), CBM (1996 to June, 2011), CNKI and Wanfang Database (1996 to June, 2011) in any language. The randomized or non-randomized controlled trials of hydrocephalus treated by endoscopic third ventriculostomy and ventriculal peritoneum shunt were considered for inclusion. The analyzed outcome variables were overall complications and the survival rate of all time points. Data related to clinical outcomes were extracted by two reviewers independently. Statistical analyses were carried out by using RevMan 5.0 software. Results Nine published reports of eligible studies involving 1 187 participants met the inclusion criteria. Compared with VPS, ETV had no significant differences in short-term (1 or 2 years) survival rate (RR=1.02, 95%CI 0.90 to 1.16, P=0.74; RR=1.14, 95%CI 1.00 to 1.30, P=0.06), but there were significant differences between the two groups in overall complication rate (RR=0.70, 95%CI 0.57 to 0.89, P=0.001), postoperative 3-year survival rate (RR=1.23, 95%CI 1.07 to 1.41, P=0.004), and postoperative 5-year survival rate (RR=1.14, 95%CI 1.29 to 1.66, P=0.05). So the outcomes indicated ETV was superior in controlling the overall complication rate and prolonging the long-term survival rate. Conclusion Current evidence suggests that endoscopic third ventriculostomy is superior to ventriculal peritoneum shunt in reducing the overall complications and prolonging the long-term survival rate, but there is no significant difference in short-term survival rate between the two methods. The effectiveness of the two operational methods for hydrocephalus caused by all specific reasons still has to be further proved by more high-quality, multi-centered and double-blind RCTs.