ObjectivesThe aim of this research is to assess the effects of bee venom acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis. MethodsFor a systematic review, we constructed a key question as the effect of bee venom acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis and selected RCTs and nRCTs. We searched the following 15 databases without a language restriction: Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL (CENTRAL), CINAHL, AMED, seven Korean medical databases (KoreaMed, Kmbase, KISS, NDSL, KISTI, Koreantk, OASIS) and three Chinese databases including CNKI, Wanfang and VIP database.ResultsA total of 300 potentially relevant studies were identified; only 13 studies were selected for systematic review. Almost studies showed that bee venom acupuncture has significant effect on knee osteoarthritis. 5 studies comparing bee venom acupuncture with acupuncture were included in the meta-analysis. The effect size of standardized mean dif-ference (SMD) was analyzed as 'small effect' with 0.47 (95% CI: 0.10∼0.83, Z=2.49, p=0.01).ConclusionsThe research showed that bee venom acupuncture can significantly re-duce pain, stiffness and improve the quality of life of patients with knee osteoarthritis. However, most of the studies included in the analysis were evaluated as methodologically high risk of bias. This suggests that there is limitation applying this study. In the future, more Randomized Controlled trial should be actively conducted. (J Korean Med Rehabil 2017;27(3):47-60)