Abstract: OBJECTIVE To explore the status of actual joint infection in patients with osteoarthritis after joint cavity injection therapy. METHODS A total of 684 patients with osteoarthritis treated in our hospital from Jan. 2014 to Dec. 2016 were selected as the subjects, which were divided into the observation group and the control group, with 342 cases in each group. Patients in the observation group were treated by intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate, and patients in the control group were treated with glucocorticoid injection. The incidence of joint infection in two groups was statistically analyzed. Pathogen identification and drug sensitivity analysis were carried out, and life quality scores before and after treatment were analyzed. RESULTS After treatment, the joint infection rate in the observation group was 0.88% (3/342), which was significantly lower than 12.28% (42/342) in the control group (P=0.039). Totally 45 strains of pathogenic bacteria were detected in 45 infected patients, including 22 strains of gram-negative bacteria accounting for 48.89%, 21 strains of gram-positive bacteria accounting for 46.67%, ans 2 strains of fungi accounting for 4.44%. Before treatment, the scores of quality of life questionnaire for both groups (GQOLI-74) had no significant difference, and were improved for both groups after treatment. The quality of life score in the observation group was (93.28±2.09) points, which was significantly higher than (64.34±5.33) points in the control group (P<0.001). Escherichia coli had higher sensitivity to cefoperazone/sulbactam and levofloxacin, Klebsiella pneumoniae had higher sensitivity to levofloxacin, and Staphylococcus aureus and streptococcus had the higher sensitivity to linezolid. CONCLUSION Joint cavity injection of corticosteroids can increase the risk of patients with joint infection, but the intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate for treatment of patients is better.