Objective To systematically review the impacts of general anesthesia using sevoflurane versus propofol on the incidence of emergence agitation in pediatric patients. Methods Such databases as PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2012), CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data and VIP were electronically searched from inception to December 2012, for comprehensively collecting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the impacts of general anesthesia using sevoflurane versus propofol on the incidence of emergence agitation in pediatric patients. References of included studies were also retrieved. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 software. Results A total of 9 RCTs involving 692 children were included, of which, six were pooled in the meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis showed that: a) after anesthesia induction using sevoflurane, intravenous propofol maintenance was associated with a lower incidence of emergence agitation compared with sevoflurane maintenance (RR=0.57, 95%CI 0.39 to 0.84, P=0.004); and b) patients anesthetized with total intravenous propofol had a lower incidence of emergence agitation compared with total inhalation of sevoflurane (RR=0.16, 95%CI 0.06 to 0.39, Plt;0.000 1). Conclusion The incidence of emergence agitation after general anesthesia using sevoflurane is higher than that using propofol. Due to the limited quantity and quality, the application of sevoflurane should be chosen based on full consideration into patients’ conditions in clinic.