Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of pretreatment regimen containing idarubicin (IDA) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for high-risk refractory leukemia. Methods A total of 116 patients with high-risk refractory leukemia who received allo-HSCT treated with 7 types of IDA-containing pretreatment regimes were enrolled in this study. The implantation rate of 116 recipients was summed up. The 2-year overall survival (OS), 2-year disease free survival (DFS), cumulative recurrence rate, recurrent mortality, transplantation related mortality (TRM), cumulative incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) and chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) were statistically analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survival curve. Results All 116 recipients successfully implanted. The median follow-up time was 28 (7-70) months. Among them, 64 recipients survived, the 2-year OS was 55.2%, 2-year DFS was 51.7%, 2-year recurrent mortality was 23.3% and 2-year TRM was 18.1%. Among 116 recipients, 72 cases suffered from aGVHD. The 2-year cumulative incidence rate of aGVHD was 62.1% including 20 cases of grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ aGVHD, the 2-year cumulative incidence rate was 17.2%. Among 116 recipients, 59 cases presented with cGVHD. The 2-year cumulative incidence rate was 55.4%, of which the 2-year cumulative incidence rate of extensive cGVHD was 14.7%. Among 116 recipients, 30 cases recurred with a 2-year cumulative recurrence rate of 25.9%. Conclusions IDA-containingpretreatment regime has high safety and effectiveness, and can be used as an effective pretreatment regime for transplantation preprocessing in patients with high-risk refractory leukemia.