Abstract: Objective To study the therapeutic effect of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI)or combined maze and ganglionic plexi (GP) ablation or GP ablation alone on atrial fi brillation (AF). Methods Papers on PVI/MAZE combined with GP ablation, traditional PVI/MAZE, GP ablation alone were retrieved from PubMed, EMBase, Cochrane controlled trials register (CCRT), ClinicalTrials, Sinomed, and WanFang from 1968 to June 2013. The main end-points were the AF-free or antiarrhythmic drug-free AF success rate of a single operation. Of the 303 papers retrieved, 7 were included in this study. Results PVI/MAZE combined with GP ablation significantly improved the sinus rhythm in paroxysmal AF patients (n=395, OR=6.94, 95% CI:2.97-16.21) and had no significant effect on the sinus rhythm in non-paroxysmal AF patients (n=174, OR=2.84, 95% CI:0.81-10.03). The sinus rhythm was lower in paroxysmal and non-paroxysmal AF patients after GP ablation alone than after PVI/MAZE (n=106, OR=0.31, 95% CI:0.14-0.71). Conclusion PVI/MAZE combined with GP ablation can significantly improve the sinus rhythm in paroxysmal AF patients and has no significant effect on the sinus rhythm in non-paroxysmal AF patients. The success rate of GP ablation alone is lower than that of PVI.