Background: Colorectal cancer surgery includes "high tie" and "low tie" of the inferior mesenteric artery(IMA). However, different ligation level is closely related to the blood supply of anastomosis, which may increase the leakage rate, and it is unclear which technique confers a lower anastomotic leakage rate(AL) and survival advantage. Objective: To compare the effectiveness and impact of inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) high ligation versus IMA low ligation on anastomotic leakage, lymph nodes yield rates and 5-year survival. Methods: A list of these studies, published in English from 1990 to 2017, was obtained independently by two reviewers from databases such as PubMed, Medline, ScienceDirect and Web of Science. Anastomotic leakage rate, the yield of lymph nodes and 5-year survival were compared using Review Manager 5.3. Results: There was no significant difference in anastomotic leakage, number of lymph nodes retrieved and 5-year survival rate for both techniques. Conclusions: Neither the high tie nor the low tie strategy has an evidence in terms of anastomotic leakage rate, harvested lymph nodes, and the 5-year survival rate. Further RCT is needed.