Objective To evaluate the sensitivity and accuracy of SPIO-enhanced MR Imaging in the detection of focal hepatic lesions. Methods We searched MEDLINE (1966 to 2004), EMBSAE (1984 to 2004), The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2004), CBMdisc (Jan.1978 to Jul. 2004), CMCC (1994 to 2004), “Radiology”, “AJR” and “European Radiology” database. Data from pharmaceutical companies and our research were also added. Related journals published from 1985 to 2003 were handsearched. Participants were clinically suspected of focal hepatic lesions. The quality of studies was assessed, and descriptive systematic review was applied to evaluate the detection sensitivity and accuracy of the imaging modality. Results Ten studies (418 patients with 1 037 focal hepatic lesions) were included. Because the data of sensitivity and specificity could not be extracted from any of the 10 included studies, it was impossible to do the meta-analysis using SROC curve. The sensitivity of SPIO-enhanced MRI ranged from 66% to 100%; accuracy ranged from 76% to 97%. Conclusions At present, there is no evidence to ascertain that SPIO-enhanced MRI has a considerably high accuracy in the detection of focal hepatic lesions. More studies with good methodology are needed.