Objective To systematically review the relationship between the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the short-term prognosis of patients with acute aortic dissection. MethodDatabases including PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, CBM, and WanFang Data were electronically searched to collect studies on the prognosis associated with neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and acute aortic dissection from inception to July 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed using RevMan 5.4 software. Results A total of 10 case-control studies involving 1 638 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis revealed that the in-hospital mortality group of patients with acute aortic dissection had higher NLR levels than the survival group (MD=4.94, 95%CI 2.67 to 7.61, P<0.0001). In patients with acute aortic dissection, there was no statistical difference in in-hospital mortality between the low NLR group and the high NLR group (OR=3.03, 95%CI 1.00 to 9.15, P=0.05). Conclusion Patients with acute aortic dissection who died in hospital shows higher NLR levels than those who survived. However, due to the quantity and quality of included studies, the above conclusions are needed to be verified by more high-quality studies.