Abstract:[Objective] To compare the short-term outcomes of cruciate retaining (CR) versus posterior stabilized (PS) total knee arthro- plasty (TKA) for moderate and severe knee osteoarthritis (KOA) . [Methods] A retrospective study was done on 142 patients (142 knees) who underwent TKA for moderate and severe unilateral KOA from January 2015 to December 2017. According to preoperative doctor-pa- tient communication, 85 patients (85 knees) received CR-TKA, while the remaining 57 patients (57 knees) received PS -TKA. The periop- erative, follow-up and imaging documents were compared between the two groups. [Results] All the patients in both groups had operation completed successfully without neurovascular injuries and other serious complications. The CR group proved significantly superior to the PS group in terms of intraoperative blood loss, displacement measured in intraoperative anterior drawer test, postoperative drainage and walking time postoperatively (P<0.05) . The patients in both groups were followed up for more than 36 months, and the CR group resumed full weight-bearing activity significantly earlier than the PS group (P<0.05) . The VAS scores decreased significantly (P<0.05) , while flex- ion- extension ROM, AKSS clinical and functional scores, as well as HSS scores significantly increased over time in both groups (P<0.05) , which in the CR group were significantly superior to those in the PS group at 1 month after surgery (P<0.05) , whereas become not statisti- cally significant between them at 6 and 36 months postoperatively (P>0.05) . With respect to radiographs, the femorotibial angle (FTA) de- creased significantly (P<0.05) , while the medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) increased significantly postoperatively in both groups com- pared with those preoperatively (P<0.05) , with no significant differences between the two group at any matching time points (P>0.05) . How- ever, the CR group had significantly less posterior tibial slope (PTS) than the PS group at 6 and 36 months after operation (P<0.05) . [Conclusion] Both CR and PS prostheses for TKA do effectively treat KOA. By contrast, the CR prosthesis takes benefits of less surgical trauma and faster functional recovery, however, long-term follow-up is still needed to compare the efficacy of the two prostheses.