ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the efficacy of different interventions in preventing rocuroniuminduced injection pain or withdrawal movements, so as to provide references for preventing adverse reactions induced by rocuronium injection in clinical practice. MethodsWe electronically searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2014), CBM, and CNKI databases to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about the prevention of rocuronium-induced injection pain or withdrawal movements from inception to March 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2.8 software. ResultsA total of 43 RCTs involving 6 034 patients were include. The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with the placebo/blank group, lidocaine pretreatment with venous occlusion (RR=0.37, 95%CI 0.29 to 0.48, P<0.000 01), opioid drug pretreatment with venous occlusion (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.68 to 0.87, P<0.000 1), lidocaine pretreatment with venous injection (RR=0.51, 95%CI 0.44 to 0.59, P<0.000 01), opioid drug pretreatment with venous injection (OR=0.03, 95%CI 0.02 to 0.05, P<0.000 01), ketamine pretreatment with venous injection (RR=0.36, 95%CI 0.23 to 0.54, P<0.000 01), mixing sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) with rocuronium (OR=0.02, 95%CI 0.01 to 0.04, P<0.000 01) and local heating (RR=0.74, 95%CI 0.63 to 0.88, P=0.000 6) were all effective in decreasing the incidence of rocuronium-induced injection pain or withdrawal movements. ConclusionThe intravenous injection of opioid drugs was effective in preventing rocuronium-induced injection pain or withdrawal movements, while local heating needs further research. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the induced studies, the above conclusion still needs to be verified by more high quality studies.