Objective To compare the effects of general anesthesia and epidural block anesthesia on postoperative short-term cognitive function of elderly orthopedic patients.Methods From January 2015 to March 2013,80 elderly patients with orthopedic surgery in the Sixth Hospital of Ningbo were selected in the research ,According to the anes-thesia method,40 patients received general anesthesia were enrolled into general anesthesia group ,40 patients received epidural anesthesia were enrolled into epidural group.The cognitive function of different time were compared between the two groups.Results There were no statistically significant differences in blood pressure and heart rate between the two groups (all P＞0.05).The simple mental health scale (MMSE) scores at 6h,12h,24h after anesthesia in the general anesthesia group were (26.4 ±0.7)points,(25.9 ±0.5)points,(29.2 ±0.8)points,respectively,compared with that before anesthesia[(29.1 ±1.1)points],the difference was statistically significant (t＝6.235,P＜0.05). The MMSE scores at 6h,12h after anesthesia in the epidural group were (26.5 ±0.4) points,(25.8 ±0.7) points, compared with that before anesthesia[(29.2 ±0.8)points],the difference was statistically significant (t＝5.123, P＜0.05).The MMSE score at 24 h after anesthesia in the epidural group was (29.5 ±0.7)points,which was obvi-ously higher than (27.2 ±0.8)points in the general anesthesia group (t＝13.684,P＜0.05).The incidence rates of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) at 6h,12h after anesthesia in the general anesthesia group (17.50%, 20.00%) were significantly higher than those in the epidural group (7.50,5.00%) ( χ2＝4.571,10.285,all P＜0.05).Conclusion The effect of general anesthesia on postoperative cognitive function is significantly greater than that of epidural anesthesia.