Objective: To investigate the value and risk of endoscopic colonic stents and planned surgery for obstructive left-sided colon cancer. Methods: The relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were collected by searching several national and international online databases. After screening for inclusion, data extraction, and quality assessment, Meta-analysis was performed by the RevMan 5.2 software. Results: Six RCTs were finally included involving 322 patients, of whom 165 cases underwent endoscopic colonic stents and planned surgery (stenting group), and 157 cases received emergency surgery (emergency surgery group). Results of the Meta-analysis showed that, in stenting group versus emergency surgery group, the fistulization rate and incidence of wound infections were significantly decreased (OR=0.41, 95% CI=0.24–0.69, P=0.0009; OR=0.34, 95% CI=0.13–0.86, P=0.02), and the primary anastomosis rate was significantly increased (OR=2.84, 95% CI=1.68–4.80, P<0.0001), while the differences in mortality, and incidence of anastomotic leakage, overall complications, unplanned reoperations, and abdominal infection (P=0.58) had no statistical significance (all P>0.05). Conclusion: Endoscopic colonic stents and planned surgery can reduce the fistulization rate and incidence of wound infections, and increase the primary anastomosis rate, but has no beneficial effect in improvement of the overall rates of complications and mortality.