ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus (TAC) and cyclosporine A (CsA) for patients after renal transplantation.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, CBM, WanFang Data and CNKI databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the efficacy and safety of TAC vs. CsA after renal transplantation from inception to December, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 12 RCTs involving 3 130 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: compared with CsA, the TAC had lower incidence of acute rejection at 6 months after renal transplantation (RR=0.61, 95%CI 0.50 to 0.74, P<0.000 01), and had higher glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (MD=4.20, 95%CI 1.07 to 7.34, P=0.009), lower incidence of dyslipidemia (RR=0.46, 95%CI 0.27 to 0.80, P<0.006), higher incidence of diabetes (RR=1.36, 95%CI 1.12 to 1.65, P=0.002) at 12 months after renal transplantation. There was no significant difference between two groups in the incidence of hypertension after renal transplantation (RR=0.90, 95%CI 0.69 to 1.17,P=0.43).ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that, compared with CsA, TAC can significantly improve renal function, reduce the risk of acute rejection and dyslipidemia, but it can increase the risk of diabetes. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify above conclusions.