Abstract: Objective: To investigate the research and application status of preterms' pain assessment tools in China and aboard, and to provide references for premature infants' pain assessment in China. Methods: PubMed, CNKI and Wanfang were searched for papers which described praterms' pain assessment for nearly 10 years. Results: A total of 270 papers were recruited including 212 clinical trials with 30 papers (14.15%) not using a pain assessment tool, 91 (42.92%)using tools directly without reliability and validity assessment, and 92 (43.40%) not defining the significance of tools to clinical pain management. Conclusion: It is a general phenomenon in China and abroad that the pain assessment tools were used irregularly, which mislead the pain treatment. It is necessary to regulate the application of preterms' pain assessment in China.