Abstract: Objective To compare the effectiveness of partial caries removal and complete caries removal for acute caries of primary teeth. Methods The Cochrane Library、PubMed, EMbase、WanFang Data, CBM、CNKI were searched for randomized controlled trials from 1978 to August 2015.Quality assessment, literature screening and data extraction were performed by two reviewers independently. Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3 software. Results 6 RCTs were included at last,including 562 patients and 758 teeth. Meta analysis indicated that partial caries removal could relieve the pulp exposure and was significant［RR=0.13，95%CI(0.05，0.37)］.There were no significant differences between partial and complete caries removal in postoperative pulpal disease ［RR=0.92, 95%CI (0.34, 2.50)］and failure of restorations ［RR=1.07, 95%CI (0.67, 1.70)］. Conclusion Partial caries removal is effective for acute caries of primary teeth and is worth of promotion in clinical work. Due to the limitations of the included RCTs，more large-sample and high-quality RCTs are needed to confirm the reliability of this study.

Key words: partial caries removal , Acute caries, meta-analysis