ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty on forgotten joint score (FJS) in patients with knee osteoarthritis.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies on unicompartmental knee arthroplasty on FJS in patients with knee osteoarthritis from inception to December 31st, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias of included studies, then, meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 2 RCTs and 11 cohort studies were included. The results of meta-analysis based on RCTs showed that: compared to posterior stabilized total knee arthroplasty (PS-TKA), unicompartmental knee arthroplasty could improve FJS on 12-month (MD=9.23, 95%CI 0.53 to 17.93, P=0.04) after operation. The results of meta-analysis based on cohort studies showed that: compared to PS-TKA, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty could improve FJS on 6-week (MD=8.90, 95%CI 6.87 to 10.94, P<0.000 01), 6-month (MD=18.72, 95%CI 8.71 to 28.74, P=0.000 2), 1-year after operation (MD=13.41, 95%CI 8.87 to 17.95, P<0.000 01), and the last follow-up (MD=0.99, 95%CI 0.47 to 1.54, P=0.000 2).ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that, comparing with PS-TKA, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in knee osteoarthritis shows advantage in the improvement of FJS. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.