The standard surgery for early-stage endometrial cancer is total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), while total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) is less invasive and assumed to be associated with lower morbidity. This meta-analysis was performed to investigate the effects of TLH versus TAH in women with early-stage endometrial cancer. We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, CBM and Cochrane Review databases for randomized trials assessing the effects of TLH versus TAH in women with early-stage endometrial cancer. The relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from each study were pooled using meta-analysis. In our study, 9 randomized trials with a total of 1,263 patients were included. Meta-analyses showed that TLH was associated with lower risks of major complications (RR = 0.53, 95%CI 0.29-0.98, P = 0.042), total complications (RR = 0.59, 95%CI 0.42-0.82, P = 0.002) and postoperative complications (RR = 0.57, 95%CI 0.40-0.83, P = 0.003). However, there were no obvious differences in risks of intra-operative complications (RR = 0.98, 95%CI 0.62-1.55, P = 0.919) and mortality (RR = 0.96, 95%CI 0.66-1.40, P = 0.835). In conclusion, our results provide new evidence of a benefit for TLH over TAH in terms of major complications, total complications and postoperative complications in endometrial cancer patients.