Comparison of the effects of general anesthesia and epidural anesthesia on short-term cognitive function in elderly patients after orthopedic surgery

Objective To compare the effects of general anesthesia and epidural anesthesia on short-term cognitive function in elderly patients after orthopedic surgery. Methods According to the digital table, 90 elderly orthopedic patients were divided into the control group and observation group, 45 cases in each group.The control group was given general anesthesia, and the observation group was given epidural anesthesia.Before anesthesia and 6h, 12h, 12h, 72h after anesthesia, cognitive function was detected according to MMSE, and before anesthesia and operation, 30min after operation, postoperation heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured. Results Before anesthesia, before operation, 30 min intraoperation and after operation, the HR between the two groups had no significant differences(t=0.094, 0.113, 0.188, 0.348, all P>0.05), and BP between the two groups also had no significant differences (t=0.190, 0.179, 0.181, 0.271, all P>0.05). Compared with the scores of MMSE in the control group at postoperative 24h, the scores of MMSE in the observation group was significantly higher (t=37.947, P 0.05). Compared with pre-induction, the scores of MMSE in the control group at postoperative 6h, 12h and 24h were significantly lower(t=29.912, 41.000, 39.528, all P 0.05). Conclusion Compared with general anesthesia, epidural anesthesia has less impact on short-term cognitive function.and the anesthetic effect is better. Key words: Anesthesia, epidural; Anesthesia, general; Cognition; Aged