Objective To evaluate the quality of studies assessing the value of serum hyaluronic acid in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis, to analyze the sources of bias and variation, and to estimate the accuracy of serum hyaluronic acid in diagnosing early liver cirrhosis and liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.Methods We searched MEDLINE (1966 to June 2006), EMbase (1974 to June 2006), CBMdisc (1978 to April 2005), CNKI (2005 to June 2006) and VIP (2005 to June 2006) for studies assessing the diagnostic value of serum hyaluronic acid for liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. We checked the references in the reports of included studies. QUADAS items were used for quality assessment. Meta-disc software was used to analyze sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic test odds ratio for the pooled analysis and heterogeneity test. DPS2005 software was used to draw SROC curves for those without heterogeneity. Results In total 24 studies were included: 12 published in Chinese and 12 published in English. Results of the pooled analysis showed that, as for radioimmunoassay (RIA), the pooled LR+ of the studies involving the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and the differentiation of absent/present liver fibrosis were 7.029 and 3.608; and the pooled LR- were 0.198 and 0.319, respectively. As for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the pooled LR+ of the studies involving the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, the differentiation of mild/severe and absent/present liver fibrosis were 6.093, 9.806 and 4.308; and the pooled LR- were 0.354, 0.347 and 0.563, respectively. Conclusion The biases identified from the 24 studies are mainly due to reference standard review bias. By both RIA and ELISA methods, serum hyaluronic acid has a sound value in diagnosing live cirrhosis. Its value in differentiating absent/present liver fibrosis is also acceptable. However, its value in differentiating mild/severe liver fibrosis needs to be further studied.