Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a post-operative complications, can seriously affect the patient's prognosis. Objective: Perioperative factors that may affect POCD in detail to guide clinicians to better identify patients at high risk, strengthen the management of perioperative prevention to reduce the occurrence of POCD development. Content: Currently considered the impact of POCD wide range of factors, including the patient generally, genetic factors, environmental factors, preoperative disease, type of surgery, anesthesia, drug use. Trends: The POCD influencing factors and pathogenesis still need to be in-depth study and found effective early warning indicators, and thus lower the occurrence of POCD.