Effects of Different Anesthesia Methods on Postoperative Cognitive Function in Elderly Patients Undergoing Lower Limb Fracture Surgery

LOU Baofeng; REN Jing

doi:10.13919/j.issn.2095-6274.ZHJY202406019

Abstract：Objective To compare the effects of general anesthesia and epidural anesthesia on postopera-tive cognitive function and surgical-related indicators in elderly patients undergoing lower limb fracture surgery.Methods A total of 100 elderly patients who underwent lower limb fracture surgery at Weifang Second People's Hospital from June 2022 to June 2024 were collected.Based on the type of anesthesia,patients were divided into an epidural anesthesia group(n=50)and a general anesthesia group(n=50).Surgical-related indicators,cognitive function,and postoperative complications were compared between the two groups.Results The surgery dura-tion in the epidural anesthesia group was longer than that in the general anesthesia group(P＜0.00l),but the amount of anesthetic used was significantly less(P＜0.001).Additionally,the time to eye-opening,verbal response time,and length of hospital stay were significantly shorter in the epidural anesthesia group compared to the general anes-thesia group(P＜0.001).At 6,12,and 24 hours postoperatively,the MMSE scores in the epidural anesthesia group were significantly higher than those in the general anesthesia group(P＜0.05).The overall incidence of postopera-tive complications in the epidural anesthesia group was 8.00％,significantly lower than the 24.00％in the general anesthesia group(P＜0.05).Conclusion For elderly patients undergoing lower limb fracture surgery,epidural anesthesia provides effective pain relief,has a minimal impact on cognitive function,and promotes postoperative recovery.