To explore the efficacy of modified shortening of levator palpebrae superioris muscle on patients with ptosis. A total of 78 patients with mild or moderate ptosis admitted to our hospital were enrolled and assigned to a control group and an observation group. Patients in the control group were treated with frontalis muscle suspension and those in the observation group were treated with modified shortening of levator palpebrae superioris muscle and the efficacy on ptosis of patients in the two groups was compared. The effective correction rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group ( 92.59 % vs. 78.72 %) and at 1 st and 7 th d after operation, compared with the control group, the observation group experienced significantly more blinking times and significantly less eyelid closure insufficiency. After operation, the two groups suffered from complications including interbrow hematoma, symblepharon, eyelid entropion, ectropion or angulation, poor upper eyelid radian, exposure keratitis and the incidence of complications in the observation group was not significantly different from that in the control group. In addition, during the follow-up period, the upper eyelid retraction of the observation group was significantly less than that of the control group (all p<0.05). The modified shortening of levator palpebrae superioris muscle can provide reliable efficacy for patients with ptosis and it results in less complications and smaller upper eyelid retraction.