ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy of central venous catheter closed drainage of pleural cavity combined with negative pressure suction in the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax. MethodsThe randomized controlled trials(RCTs) on central venous catheter closed drainage of pleural cavity combined with negative pressure suction in the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax were searched in PubMed, OVID, CNKI, Wangfang database, Super Star Digital Library, CMB, Baidu and Google search engines. The searching time was from the time of building database to September 15, 2014. Two searchers selected studies based on the included criteria strictly. The quality of RCTs was appraised by the criteria of Cochrane Collaboration. RevMan5.3 software was used for data analysis and management. ResultsA total of 18 RCTs including 1 549 patients were identified. There were no statistical differences in time of lung recruitment (SMD=0.01 and 95%CI -0.23 to 0.25, P=0.95), time of hospital stay (SMD=-0.42, 95%CI -1.81 to 0.97, P=0.55), curative resection rate (RR=1.04 and 95%CI 1.00 to 1.08, P=0.07) between the two groups. The rate of complications in the central venous catheter group was less than that in the conventional pleural cavity closed drainage group with a statistical difference (RR=0.31, 95%CI 0.23 to 0.43, P<0.000 01). ConclusionThe treatment of central venous catheter closed drainage of pleural cavity combined with negative pressure suction for spontaneous pneumothorax is a simple and safe operation. However, the quality of studies included is not high and some sample size is small. RCTs with large sample of high quality are still needed for further confirmation.