ObjectivesTo evaluate the clinical value of laparoscopic exploration in the diagnosis of tuberculous peritonitis by meta-analysis.MethodsThe Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, WanFang Data, CNKI and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect relevant studies on the diagnostic value of laparoscopic exploration in diagnosing tuberculous peritonitis from January 1st, 1990 to April 1st, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias of included studies. The Rveman 5.3, Meta-DiSc 1.4 and Stata SE15 software were used for statistical analysis and the receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) was drawn.ResultsA total of 10 studies involving 1098 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnosis odds ratio and area under the curve of SROC were 0.98 (95%CI 0.96 to 0.98), 0.85 (95%CI 0.78 to 0.91), 4.78 (95%CI 1.98 to 11.54), 0.06 (95%CI 0.03 to 0.12), 111.40 (95%CI 36.55 to 339.58) and 0.971 1, respectively and the Q* was 0.9216.ConclusionsThe existing evidence shows that laparoscopic exploration has higher sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of tuberculous peritonitis. Laparoscopic exploration can be used as a diagnosis and treatment tool for patients with tuberculous peritonitis in case the laboratory test cannot determine the origin. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the above results should be validated by more studies.