ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of dezocine versus fentanyl for postoperative patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA). MethodsWe electronically searched the specialized trials registered in The Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2013), the Cochrane anesthesia group, MEDLINE, EMbase, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data from inception to February, 2013. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on dezocine versus Fentanyl for postoperative PCIA were included. RevMan 5.0 software was used for meta-analysis after critically literature screening, data extracting and assessing of methodological quality independently by two reviewers. ResultsA total of 15 RCTs involving 1 116 patients were finally included. The results of meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference in postoperative analgesia and sedation at the hour-points of 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 8 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h after surgery. As for safety, the incidences of postoperative nausea, vomiting, skin pruritus, respiratory depression and uroschesis in the dezocine group were lower than those in the fentanyl group. ConclusionCompared with fentanyl, dezocine has the same effects of analgesia and sedation for PCIA; its incidence of adverse reactions is lower, so dezocine is safer in clinic.