Background　Isoflurane is an inhaled anesthetic widely used in pediatric and obstetric operations, due to its advantages such as anesthesia depth which is easy to control and little influence on the circulation.　Objective　Recent reports showed that repeated or long-time exposure to anesthetics at the young stage may cause deficient memory in the future. Therefore, increasing attentions have been drawn on isoflurane's mechanism about neurological damages.　Content　This paper summarized the toxic mechanism of isoflurane in the recent five years, and synaptic plasticity damages can cause neurotoxicity, inhibit N-methyl-D-aspartate(NMDA) receptor and stimulate amino acid type A receptor (GABAAR) and affect long-term potentiation, calcium homeostasis, and activate neurotrophins to produce apoptotic pathway, and other possible toxic mechanisms.　Trend　This paper can further determine the research direction, providing references for transform of basic research data into clinical practice as well as for the research and development of new protective drugs.