This study compared the efficacy of non-penetrating trabecular surgery and trabeculectomy for the treatment of open angle glaucoma.We searched the Cochrane Library,PUBMED (1966 to 2009),Embase (1980 to 2009) and CMB-disk (1979 to 2009) for the randomized clinical trials (RCT) concerning the two treatment strategies.The reports,including the papers listed in bibliographies,were evaluated against a set of quality criteria and the RCTs that satisfied the criteria were selected and subjected to Meta analysis by employing the Cochrane Collaboration's RevMan 4.5 software package.A total of nine RCTs were included in the study.The analyses of the reports showed that,12 months after surgery,there was significant difference in the reduction of interocular pressure (IOP) between non-penetrating trabecular surgery and trabeculectomy (Z=6.05 P＜0.00001).There also existed statistically significant difference in the reduction of IOP at the censored time between the two procedures (Z=4.92,P＜0.00001).Difference in the success rate was also found between the two surgeries (Z=3.82,P=0.0001).It is concluded that,compared with the non-penetrating trabeculectomy,the traditional trabeculectomy could reduce IOP more and had higher success rate while the non-penetrating trabecular surgery is associated with lower postoperative complications.