Objective To investigate the clinical effect and complications of transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) combined with contralateral indirect decompression in lumbar revision. Methods Retrospective analysis was performed on 48 patients who underwent revision surgery The operation time, blood loss and complications of each group were recorded. The clinical efficacy was evaluated by VAS score and JOA score before, after and at the final follow-up. Results All the 48 patients in this group were successfully operated, including 26 patients in the TLIF group and 22 patients in the c-TLIF group. There was no significant difference in operative time and intraoperative blood loss between the two groups. In the c-TLIF group, 2 patients were complicated with cerebrospinal fluid, 1 with nerve root injury, and 1 with delayed wound healing; while here were 11 cases of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, 4 cases of nerve root injury and 6 cases of delayed wound healing in the TLIF group. The incidence of complications in TLIF group was significantly higher than that in c-TLIF group. All patients were followed up for 6-36 months, with an average of 13.2±5.6 months. VAS scores in TLIF group and c-TLIF group were improved from preoperative 7.8±1.7 and 7.5±2.1 points to postoperative 1.8±0.7 and 1.7±0.9 points at the last follow-up, and JOA scores were improved from preoperative 12.4±5.8 and 11.2±7.4 points to postoperative 26.7±2.1 and 26.1±2.6 points at the last follow-up, respectively. Both groups obtained satisfactory clinical effects. However, there was no statistical difference in clinical efficacy between the c-TLIF group and the TLIF group. Intervertebral bony fusion was obtained within 1 year after surgery. Conclusions Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) combined with contralateral indirect decompression can achieve the purpose of complete decompression and reliable intervertebral fusion, reduce the incidence of surgical complications, and obtain satisfactory clinical efficacy.