ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy of intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate for kashin-beck disease. MethodsDatabases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2016), CBM, VIP, WanFang Data, and CNKI were electronically searched from inception to January 2016 to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about sodium hyaluronate in the treatment of kashin-beck disease. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 6 RCTs involving 1 276 patients were included. The result of metaanalysis suggested that the sodium hyaluronate group was significantly superior to the control group in clinical effect (OR=5.89, 95% CI 4.10 to 8.47, P < 0.000 01) and the Lequesne index (SMD=-1.66, 95% CI-2.14 to-1.13, P < 0.000 01). ConclusionIntra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate is helpful in the improvement of kashin-beck disease in clinical effect and the Lequesne index. Due to the limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are need to verify the above conclusion.