Objective To evaluate the long-term efficacy of extended and standard surgery for carcinoma of head of pancreas by using meta-analysis. Methods Related articls （1990-2012） were searched in Pubmed， WOS， Embase， WanFang， SinoMed， and CNKI. Study on quality of these literatures were evaluated by using the Jadad score. The patients with pancreatic head carcinoma underwent extended radical resection and standard radical resection were classified to treatment group and control group， respectively. The mortality， morbidity， and survival rates of 1-， 3-， and 5-year after operation in the two groups were evaluated by using meta-analysis. Results A total of 11 studies fitted the selection crit-eria， including 744 patients. Among them 357 cases were in standard radical resection group and 387 cases in the extended radical resection group. The results of meta-analysis showed that： ①The morbidity after operation did not significantly differed between the extended radical resection group and standard radical resection group （OR=1.360， 95% CI=0.990-1.870， P=0.050）. ②The mortality of the two groups did not significantly differed （OR=0.870， 95% CI=0.430-1.760，P=0.700）. ③There were no significant differences in survival rates of 1-， 3-， and 5-year between the two groups （OR=0.880， 95% CI=0.450-1.720， P=0.710；OR=0.940， 95% CI=0.590-1.480，P=0.710；OR=1.000， 95% CI=0.600-1.67， P=1.000）. Conclusion Compared with standard radical resection， extended radical resection can not improve the survival rates of 1-， 3-， and 5-year after operation， and can’t reduce the mortality and morbidity after operation