In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of cilnidipine and L-type calcium channel blockers(L-type CCBs) on renal function in hypertensive patients. The randomized controlled trials(RCTs) of cilnidipine and L-type CCBs on hypertension treatment were selected from Pubmed, Embase, Google Scholar, CNKI, Science Direct, Ebsco, Springer, Ovid, Cochrane Library, Medline, VIP and Wanfang databases(from the date of databases' establishment to September 2014). Data were independently evaluated following the Jadad standard. The percentage changes of serum creatinine(SCr) value, urinary protein excretion(UPE), urinary protein/creatinine ratio(UPCR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate(e GFR) pre- and post-treatment were extracted for the subsequent meta-analysis. The mean difference(MD) and the 95% confidence interval(95% CI) were determined using RevM an 5.3 software. A total of 10 RCTs of high quality were included and analyzed by fixedor random-effect models. The results indicated that UPE(MD = –36.59, 95% CI: –70.85, –2.33) or UPCR(MD = –46.56, 95% CI: –88.50, –4.62) was significantly reduced by cilnidipine compared with L-type CCBs. However, such significant difference was not detected in reduction of SCr(MD = 0.01, 95% CI: –2.97, 2.98) or eG FR(MD = 1.56, 95% CI: –0.19, 3.31). Compared with L-type CCBs, cilnidipine was more effective in reducing proteinuria or preventing the proteinuria progression. In addition, we did not find significant differences in SCr and eG FR between the two groups.