Genetic association studies of the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) and sepsis have provided inconsistent results. This work attempts to further quantitatively assess the association of three widely evaluated polymorphisms of IL-10 (-592C/A, -819C/T, -1082A/G) with sepsis susceptibility through a meta-analysis. A search of Pubmed, Web of Science and EMBASE databases was performed. Overall, the three polymorphisms have no strong association with sepsis risk. Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed there was association between sepsis susceptibility with -592C/A in Caucasians (A vs. C: OR 0·78, 95% CI 0·62-1·00, P = 0·05; AA + CA vs. CC: OR 0·75, 95% CI 0·56-1·00, P = 0·05), and with -1082A/G in Asians (G vs. A: OR 1·41, 95% CI 1·04-1·91, P = 0·03; GG + AG vs. AA: OR 2·11, 95% CI 1·07-4·16, P = 0·03). This meta-analysis suggests that -592C/A and -1082A/G polymorphisms are associated with sepsis susceptibility in Caucasian, and Asian populations, respectively.