Abstract: Intestinal ischemia-reperfusion (II/R) injury is a common clinical disease with the increasing incidences year by year. II/R can not only cause local damage and increase gastrointestinal injury of intestinal mucosa, but also can cause reticuloendo-thelial system to release a large amount of proinflammatory factors because of endotoxin absorption and intestinal bacterial translocation, which can then cause systemic inflammatory response syndrome and eventually led to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and distant organ injury. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the pathogenesis of II/R injury and to find effective prevention and treatment methods. In this paper, the items of reactive oxygen species, inflammation, apoptosis, autophagy, and microRNAs were reviewed on the mechanisms of II/R injury, as well as the progress of traditional Chinese medicines on prevention and treatment of the disease in recent years, which will provide information and reference for clinical diagnosis of II/R injury.