〔Abstract〕 Objective To study the mechanism of sevoflurane general anesthesia and exploratory laparotomy on cognitive dysfunction in aged rats. Methods Thirty 16-month-old SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: control group, anesthesia group, anesthesiaoperation group(10 cases in each group); control group did not do any treatment; the anesthesia group was induced by inhalation of 4% sevoflurane, and the anesthesiaoperation group was induced by inhalation of 4% sevoflurane. At the same time, exploratory laparotomy was performed. Morris water maze experiment was performed before and after the operation of all rats to evaluate their learning and memory function, and then the mice were taken blood and decapitated to remove the brain; immunohistochemical staining method was used to detect the number of astrocytes in hippocampal CA1 area, ELISA method was used to detect serum GFAP concentration. Results The results of the Morris water maze experiment showed that both the anesthesia group and the operation group could cause cognitive dysfunction in elderly rats, and the cognitive dysfunction of the elderly rats in the anesthesiaoperation group was more severe, with statistically significant difference(P<0.05); immunohistochemical staining showed that star-shaped glue plasma cells of the anesthesia group and the operation group decreased, and the anesthesiaoperation group decreased more, with statistically significant difference(P<0.05); ELISA results showed that the serum GFAP concentration of the anesthesia group and the operation group increased, and the anesthesiaoperation group increased more, with statistically significant difference(P<0.05). Conclusion Sevoflurane general anesthesia and abdominal exploration can cause cognitive dysfunction in aged rats, and the cognitive dysfunction in aged rats is related to the decrease in the number of astrocytes.