TNF and Cognitive impairment: Compared with the sham acup group, patients treated with acupuncture showed lower levels of TNF-α (Figure 4A), IL-6 (Figure 4B), and IL-1β (Figure 4C), suggesting that acupuncture inhibited the inflammatory response during the perioperative period, which might help reduce the neuroinflammation and thus to alleviate cognitive impairment.