Objective To systematically evaluate the clinical effect of remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) in selective vascular surgery. Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMbase, CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP and CBM were retrieved to gather relevant literatures. Relevant randomized controlled trials were screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results A total of 16 studies were included, involving 1 507 patients. There was no statistical difference between RIPC and non-RIPC in reducing perioperative mortality in elective vascular surgery. There were no statistical differences between the two groups in the incidence of myocardial infarction, kidney injury, postoperative stroke, postoperative length of hospital stay, the total duration of surgery or anesthesia, limb injury, arrhythmia, heart failure or pneumonia. Conclusion For patients undergoing elective vascular surgery, there may no statistical in perioperative mortality and other clinical endpoints between RIPC and non-RIPC patients.