Objective To evaluate the effect of pre-emptive analgesia on pain and inflammation control in patients with severe multiple trauma.Methods Severe multiple trauma patients treated in the emergency department from September 2014 to December 2014 were prospectively included based on the inclusion criteria including injury severity score (ISS) of 16 to 25,Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≥ 13 and visual analogue scale (VAS) ≥ 4.The patients were assigned to pre-emptive analgesia group,traditional analgesia group and non-analgesia group,according to the random number table.Pre-emptive analgesia group had patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) with sufentanil and tramadol on admission.Traditional analgesia group were administered intramuscular pethidine or subcutaneous morphine for temporary analgesia when the pain could not be tolerated.Non-analgesia group received no analgesia.VAS,systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) score and serum interleukin (IL)-6 concentration were compared among the groups on admission day,24,48,72,120,168 and 240 h after admission.Results Fifty-seven patients (46 males and 11 females) were included,and age was (39.61 ± 12.05)years.There were 18 patients in pre-emptive analgesia group,20 patients in traditional analgesia group,and 19 patients in non-analgesia group.Comparison between pre-emptive analgesia,traditional analgesia and non-analgesia groups showed no significant differences on admission with respect toVAS [(6.5±1.5),(6.6±1.4),(6.4 ±1.4)points],SIRS [(3.3±0.7),(3.4±0.6),(3.4±0.8) points] and IL-6 concentration [(109.2 ± 47.9),(99.9 ± 44.3),(106.3 ± 50.0) ng/L] (P ＞0.05).Compared to traditional analgesia and non-analgesia groups,VAS and SIRS score in pre-emptive analgesia group differed significantly at 24,48,72,120,168 and 240 h after admission,and IL-6 in pre-emptive analgesia group differed significantly at 48,72,120,168 and 240 h after admission (all P ＜0.05).VAS,SIRS score and IL-6 concentration declined faster in pre-emptive analgesia group than other two groups (P ＜ 0.05),while there were no significant differences between traditional analgesia and nonanalgesia groups (P ＞ 0.05).Positive correlation was noted between VAS and SIRS score,and between VAS and t IL-6 concentration (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Pre-analgesia provides quick and effective pain relief and attenuate excessive systemic inflammation response that contributes to stabilization and recovery of the severe multiple trauma patients.