ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of early physical rehabilitation for patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia. MethodsDatabases including PubMed, Web of Knowledge, The Cochrane Library (Issue 7, 2014), EMbase, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about early physical rehabilitation for patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia from inception to 1st August 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, metaanalysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of 6 RCTs were included. The results of metaanalysis showed that, after 1 month of treatment, the Fugl-Meyer scores (MD=18.02, 95%CI 6.24 to 29.80, P=0.003) and BI scores (MD=32.32, 95%CI 24.28 to 40.36, P<0.000 01) in the early physical rehabilitation group were higher than that in the conventional rehabilitation group. But after 3 months of treatment, there were no statistical differences between two groups in the proportion of patients with 0-2 MRS scores, mortality and the incidence of complications. ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that early physical rehabilitation can effectively improve the limb motor function and daily living ability in patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia. However, due to the limited quantity and quality of the include studies, more large-scale, high quality RCTs are needed to verify the above conclusion.