Objective To explore anesthetic quality of epidural anesthesia with general anesthesia applied for surgery of rectal cancer. Methods One hundred and seventy-eight patients who were diagnosed as rectal cancer and received operation in the Central Hospital of Bazhong City from June 2010 to June 2012 were included retrospectively. These patients were divided into two groups according to the type of anesthesia， and the patients who received general anesthesia only were defined as group A， the patients who received epidural anesthesia with general anesthesia were defined as group B. The anesthetic quality and anesthetic adverse reaction were observed in two groups. Results The differences of baseline characteristics in two groups were not significant （P＞0.05）. The difference of anesthetic quality in two groups was not significant （P＞0.05）. In terms of anesthetic adverse reaction， the incidence rate of hypertension， hypotension，tachycardia， or postoperative nausea and vomiting of the group B was significantly lower than those of the group A （P＜0.05）. The incidence rate of bradycardia， premature ventricular contractions， or time of gastrointestinal function recovery had no significant differences （P＞0.05）. There was no nerve dysfunction of lower limb in two groups. Conclusion Epidural anesthesia with general anesthesia applied for surgery of rectal cancer as compared with general anesthesia only not only has the same anesthetic quality， but also has obvious advantages in decreasing anesthetic adverse reaction.