Acute pain is one of the most common clinical symptoms, and is the sensitive response to the stimulation caused by tissue damage. Also, it is a sign of impaired human health. Recently, acute pain service, which was developed in western countries, has been widely concerned across the whole world. It is worth to note that acute pain service has been applied in clinical settings in China over the past decade in different level hospitals. Acute pain service with high quality service can provide all patients with effective pain treatment, effective clinical monitoring and accurate evaluation. Meantime, the application of acute pain service plays a vital role either in the development of analgesia technology regulations or in the guidance of hospital training, clinical research and new technology research. This literature review aims to trace the national and international current status of acute pain service, and illustrate the potential development of acute pain service in the future.