ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of tranexamic acid (TXA) in reducing blood transfusion and total blood loss in patients undergoing orthopaedic trauma surgery.MethodsA systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases. A search for grey literature was also performed in American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA). The search time was up to June 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias, then meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 and Stata 14.0 softwares.ResultsA total of 10 studies were included, including 936 patients. The pooled results indicated that TXA group was superior to the control group in blood transfusion (RR=0.75, 95%CI 0.63 to 0.89, P=0.001), the total blood loss (MD=–157.61, 95%CI –250.09 to –65.13, P=0.000 8) and the wound complications (RR=0.24, 95%CI 0.10 to 0.58, P=0.002). There was no significant difference in risk of thromboembolic events (RR=1.25, 95%CI 0.78 to 2.00, P=0.36) and the mortality (RR=0.81, 95%CI 0.40 to 1.66, P=0.57) between TXA and control group.ConclusionsTXA can effectively reduce blood transfusion, total blood loss and wound complications in patients undergoing orthopedic trauma surgery. Furthermore, TXA does not significantly increase the incidence of thromboembolic events and mortality. Due to the limited quality of included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify the above conclusions.