ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of oxycodone versus morphine for postoperative intravenous self-control analgesia (PCIA). MethodsWe searched databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 8, 2015), CBM, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data from inception to August 2015, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about oxycodone versus morphine for postoperative PCIA. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsSeven RCTs involving 826 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: there were no significant differences in postoperative analgesia at the points of 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 24 h, 36 h and 48 h after surgery (2 h: MD=0.20, 95%CI –0.18 to 0.58, P=0.30; 3 hresting state: MD=–0.51, 95%CI –2.27 to 1.26, P=0.57; 3 hdynamic state: MD=–0.46, 95%CI –2.23 to 1.40, P=0.63; 4 h: MD=0.00, 95%CI –0.25 to 0.25, P=0.99; 8 h: MD=0.10, 95%CI –0.16 to 0.36, P=0.46; 12 h: MD=–0.34, 95%CI –0.85 to 0.17, P=0.19; 24 h: MD=–0.13, 95%CI –0.43 to 0.17, P=0.41; 36 h: MD=0.10, 95%CI –0.28 to 0.48, P=0.60; 48 h: MD=–0.13, 95%CI –0.36 to 0.09, P=0.25). The incidences of postoperative vomiting (OR=0.23, 95%CI 0.08 to 0.63, P=0.005), nausea (OR=0.27, 95%CI 0.08 to 0.86, P=0.03), respiratory depression (OR=0.15, 95%CI 0.04 to 0.53, P=0.003) and skin pruritus (OR=0.19, 95%CI 0.05 to 0.66, P=0.009) in the oxycodone group were lower than those in the morphine group. In addition, there were no significant differences of the incidences of headache, dizzy and shiver between two groups.ConclusionCompared with morphine, oxycodone has the same analgesia effect for PCIA, however, the incidences of adverse reactions are lower. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the above results are needed to be validated by more high quality studies.