Objective To evaluate systematically the effect of antibiotic treatment on ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis (VAT). Methods Pubmed,Web of Science,OVID SP (ACP Journal Club,Cochrane Central Register of Contralled Trials,Embase,Medline),as well as China National Knowledge Infrastructure,China Science and Technology Journal Database,and Wanfang Data were searched for literatures about antibiotic treatment on VAT.The search deadline was March 2016.Meta-analysis was conducted with RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of 6 studies with 769 patients were included.Among 769 patients,432 patients were treated by antibiotics,and 337 patients in control group were treated without antibiotics.Meta-analysis showed antibiotics treatment significantly reduced incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia compared with control group [OR=0.27,95%CI (0.17,0.43),P<0.05],and shortened length of ICU stay [MD -1.51,95%CI(-2.04,-0.98),P<0.00001] .There were no significant difference in duration of mechanical ventilation [MD -2.52,95%CI (-6.85,1.81),P=0.25],mortality [OR=0.41,95%CI(0.15,1.14),P=0.09],or drug-resistant bacteria production [OR=0.62,95%CI(0.17,2.19),P>0.05]. Conclusions Antibiotic treatment can reduce incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients with VAT.Further more high quality randomized controlled trials are needed to assess the effect of antibiotic treatment on VAT.