Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) comparing with conventional open gastrectomy (COG) in elderly patients with gastric cancer. Methods Databases included PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP were searched to collect the case-control studies about LAG versus COG for elderly patients with gastric cancer, and the searched time was from inception to May 2017. Then meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.2 software. Results Finally, ten case-control studies included 1 522 patients were enrolled. There were 757 patients in observation group (underwent LAG) and 765 patients in control group (underwent COG). Results of meta-analysis showed that: the observation group was associated with less intraoperative blood loss ［MD=–121.12, 95% CI was (–179.93, –62.31), P<0.000 1］, more harvested lymph nodes ［MD=1.62, 95% CI was (0.60, 2.65), P=0.002］, shorter time to the first ambulation ［SMD=–2.58, 95% CI was(–4.58, –0.58), P=0.01］, shorter the postoperative intestinal function recovery time ［SMD=–0.85, 95% CI was (–1.20, –0.51), P<0.000 01］, shorter the time of oral intake ［MD=–0.90, 95% CIwas (–1.27, –0.52), P<0.000 01］, shorter hospital stay ［MD=–4.03,95% CI was (–5.62, –2.44), P<0.000 01］, lower incidences of overall postoperative complications ［OR=0.49, 95% CI was (0.38,0.64), P<0.000 01］, surgical-related complications ［OR=0.54, 95% CI was (0.39, 0.74), P=0.000 1］, incision relatedcomplications ［OR=0.42, 95% CI was (0.22, 0.81), P=0.010］, and respiratory complications ［OR=0.60, 95% CI was (0.38, 0.95), P=0.03］, but there was no significant difference on the operative time ［MD=8.36, 95% CI was (–10.97, 27.69), P=0.40］ and incidence of anastomotic fistula ［OR=0.60, 95% CI was (0.27, 1.31), P=0.20］. Conclusions The available evidences suggest that LAG is equally safe and feasible compared with COG, it has a significant advantages in reducing intraoperative blood loss and ensuring the number of lymph node dissected during surgery, with less trauma, shorter postoperative hospital stay, lower overall postoperative complications rate, and other short-term efficacy advantages.