Objective: To evaluate the effect of general anesthesia and regional anesthesia on the occurrence of postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction by systematic literature review and Meta analysis. Methods: Corresponding key words were systematically searched in wanfang and weipu Chinese database, and MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and ISI Web of Knowledge English database were also searched. Included literatures were evaluated one by one, and STATA 12.0 was used for Meta analysis. Results: A total of 16 studies were included. Results showed that combined effect values of general anesthesia and regional anesthesia on postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction were OR=0.85 (95%CI=0.66, 1.04) and OR=1.38 (95%CI=0.88, 1.88) respectively. General anesthesia might reduce the occurrence of postoperative delirium but increase the risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction. Subgroup analysis showed that there were no significant differences in combined effect OR and 95% confidence interval of orthopedics, urology, cardiology and general surgery. Conclusion: The Meta analysis proves that the occurrence of postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction are not related to anesthesia.