Objective To explore the effect of cognitive thinking rehabilitation nursing on the delayed encephalopathy after acute CO intoxication .Methods From October 2012 to May 2013 , totals of 37 cases with delayed encephalopathy after acute CO intoxication were selected as study group , and others 33 cases during November 2013 and May 2014 were recruited as control group .Study group received the rehabilitation nursing of cognitive thinking on the basis of routine nursing , while control group received the routine nursing only .Then, the clinical effect of two groups were observed .Results After the intervention , the scores of MMSE , HDS and ADL in study group were (16.87 ±3.95),(18.90 ±3.65) and (42.12 ±10.21),that respectively higher than before the intervention (25.04 ±2.00),(26.04 ±1.71) and (86.12 ±8.93),and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).In control group, scores of MMSE [(21.05 ±1.75) vs (16.86 ±3.92)], HDS[(20.97 ±1.65) vs (18.06 ±3.70)] and ADL[(65.52 ±10.38) vs (43.01 ±11.23)] after the intervention were higher than that before , and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).After the intervention , the scores of MMSE , HDS and ADL in study group were significantly higher than that in control group (t=3.449,6.747,4.758,respectively;P<0.05),and the nursing satisfaction of patients in study group was significantly higher than that in control group (97.30% vs 87.88%;χ2 =2.333, P <0.05). Conclusions Strengthen the rehabilitation nursing intervention of cognitive thinking can improve cognitive and self-care abilities of patients with delayed encephalopathy after acute CO intoxication , and improve patients ’ satisfaction,which is worthy of clinical popularization and application .