Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the improvement of knee function in patients with knee osteoarthritis who underwent total knee arthroplasty and arthroscopy in China, and to provide a scientific basis for the application of clinical total knee arthroplasty in knee osteoarthritis.Methods: A total of 160 patients with knee osteoarthritis who were admitted to Chinese hospital from January 2017 to December 2018 were studied. They were divided into experimental group and control group according to their willingness of treatment. The control group was treated with arthroscopy and the experimental group was treated with total knee arthroplasty. All patients were followed for a period of 6 months. The knee joint function score (HSS), visual analog scale (VAS), and anxiety self-assessment scale (SAS) scores before and after surgery were compared between the two groups. Results: The proportion of "excellent or good" in the efficacy of the experimental group (91.25%) was higher than that of the control group (72.50%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=9.476, P<0.05). The HSS score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (P<0.05), while the VAS and SAS scores were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). The scores of various SF-36 scales in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group after operation (P<0.05).Conclusions: Total knee arthroplasty was considered effective in treating patients with knee osteoarthritis that meet the indications, and is beneficial to improve knee function and reduce pain in patients. The surgical treatment also reduced the level of anxiety and effectively improve the quality of life of patients. Further investigation of its clinical application on treatment of knee osteoarthritis is warranted.