ObjectiveTo systematically review the effectiveness of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers for the prevention of succinylcholine-induced myalgia in clinical practice. MethodsDatabases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2014), WanFang Data, CBM and CNKI were searched to collect the randomized controlled trails (RCTs) about non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers for the prevention of succinylcholine-induced myalgia from inception to March 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality of included studies. Then meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of 11 RCTs involving 666 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that:the pre-treatment of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers prevented succinylcholine-induced myalgia at 24 h after surgery (RR=0.46, 95%CI 0.39 to 0.55, P<0.000 01); however, the effectiveness of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers for prevention of succinylcholine-induced myalgia at 48 h after surgery was still unclear. ConclusionCurrent studies suggests that both rocuronium and atracurium are effective for the prevention of succinylcholine-induced myalgia. However, due to limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the abovementioned conclusion.