Abstract: [Objective] To explore the curative effect of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) versus total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for knee osteoarthritis (KOA). [Methods] The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of science, EMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang Data and CBM Data were searched for the curative effect of UKA versus TKA for KOA published up to January 2021. Literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction were conducted based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. RevMan5.3 was used to perform the meta-analysis of parameters related to the consequences. [results] A total of 24 studies were included, including 3066 cases of knee joints. The results of the Meta-analysis showed that in the UKA group, intraoperative blood loss [MD=-152.58, 95%CI(-167.96, -137.20), P<0.001], drainage volume [MD=-173.65, 95%CI(-180.21, -167.08), P<0.00001], blood transfusion rate [OR=0.04, 95%CI(0.02, 0.13), P<0.00001], operating time [MD=-20.98, 95%CI(-35.83, -6.12), P<0.05], KSS [MD=0.95, 95%CI(0.26, 1.63), P=0.007], HSS [MD=2.60, 95%CI(-0.08, 5.27), P=0.06] and ROM [MD=5.99, 95%CI(3.02, 8.95), P<0.0001] were better than those of the TKA group. The revision rate of the TKA group [OR=2.06, 95%CI（1.04, 4.08）, P=0.04] was lower than that of the UKA group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of postoperative complications and excellent and good rates. [conclusion] UKA can reduce intraoperative blood loss, drainage, blood transfusion rate, and operating time and improve knee joint score and ROM. The advantage of TKA is to reduce the revision rate. Clinical formulation of surgical plans for KOA patients should pay more attention to their conditions and needs.