Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided TAP block for the anesthesia in peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter implantation. Methods Patients with end-stage renal disease who intended to receive PD catheter implantation in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University were enrolled from April 2015 to February 2016. Those who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two groups: the local filtration anesthesia (LF) group and the TAP group. The two groups got the ultrasound guided TAP block (The LF group got a shame TAP block by making the skin wheal and just inserting the needle into the TAP with the guidance of ultrasound), then the LF group received local filtration anesthesia twenty minutes later, with the TAP group had sham LF anesthesia by injection of saline at the incision subcutaneously. The anesthetist generated the random allocation sequence and performed all TAP/sham blocks according to the allocation of each patient. The patients, investigators were all blind to the allocation. The follow-up time was 3 months. The primary outcomes were the rate of alteration to general anesthesia and the VAS score during and after the surgery. The dosages of sufentanil for analgesia during and after were recorded. The satisfaction to the effect anesthesia by the operation doctors, PD catheter related complications and adverse events related to TAP block or anesthetic agent were also recorded. Statistic analysis was conducted using SPSS 19.0 software. Results A total of 36 patients were included, 12 cases in the LF group and 24 cases in the TAP group. The rate of alteration to general anesthesia in the TAP group was 4.12% and was significantly lower than that in the LF group (33.3%) (P=0.034). The VAS scores at the time points of incision of skin, division of subcutaneous tissue and anterior rectus sheath, opening the peritoneum, insertion of PDC, suture of skin, 2 hours and 24 hours after operation were significantly lower in the TAP group compared to the LF group (P values=0.001, 0.037, 0.000, 0.001, 0.029, 0.035, and 0.000, respectively). The TAP group consumed less sufentanil during the operation and showed a higher satisfaction of the operation doctors. There were no significant differences in the PD catheter related complications and adverse events between the two groups. Conclusion The ultrasound-guided TAP block can be an effective and safe anesthesia method for PD catheter implantation. Because of the limitation of small sample size of this study, a multiple center study with larger sample size is suggested.