Objective To summarize the evidence of prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) after total joint arthroplasty, provide reference basis for clinical practice. Methods Evidence related to the prevention of SSI after hip and knee arthroplasty were retrieved from BMJ Best Practice, Up to Date, BMJ Clinical Evidence, World Health Organization (WHO), Guidelines International Network (GIN), National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC), Registered Nurse's Association of Ontario (RNAO), Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), New Zealand Guidelines Group (NZGG), American College of Physicians (ACP) Club, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), The JBI Model of Evidence Based Healthcare, PubMed, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, Chinese Biomedical Literature Datbase (CBM), and System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE). The retrieval time was in recent 5 years, evidence extraction and quality evaluation were completed independently by two researchers. Results A total of 11 studies were involved, including 6 evidence-based guidelines, 1 expert consensus and 4 systematic reviews. The researchers extracted 23 pieces of evidence for the prevention of SSI after hip and knee arthroplasty in 3 aspects (pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative), 11 of which were grade A recommendations and 12 of which were grade B recommendations. Conclusion The best evidence shows that there are multiple factors for SSI after hip and knee arthroplasty, severe SSI will hinder the process of enhanced recovery, evidence users should adjust measures according to local conditions, accurately grasp every link before, during, and after surgery, optimize the surgical and nursing procedures to prevent SSI.