Objective To explore the effects of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique on anesthesia in surgery of glioma patients. Methods 150 cases of patients with glioma admitted to the department of neurosurgery of our hospital from October 2016 to October 2017 were selected for the study, including 50 cases scheduled to craniotomy performed on the screen of MRI technique under general anesthesia (the study group) and 100 cases with conventional surgery for intracranial tumors at the same period (the control group). The operation general situation, and the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) at different periods of surgery [after anesthesia induction (T0), 60min after craniotomy(T1), immediately before scanning (T2), 15min after scanning (T3), 30min after scanning (T4), 1h after scanning (T5), at the end of operation (T6)] were recorded in the two groups, and the tumor volume, resection volume, tumor resection rate and the complications incidence rate were recorded in the two group before and after surgery. Results The preparation time, operative time and anesthesia time in the study group were significantly longer than those in the control group (P<0.01). The MAP from T2 to T6 time periods and the HR from T2 to T5 time periods in the study group were all higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The postoperative tumor volume in the study group was smaller than that in the control group while the resection volume and tumor resection rate were higher than those in the control group (P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the incidence rate of complications between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion The application of MRI technique in the surgery of glioma patients can improve the tumor resection rate, but the operative time and anesthesia time are obviously longer than the conventional operation. From the MRI scanning to the end of operation, the MAP and HR have great fluctuations, which should be strengthened monitoring. And for patients with severe heart disease, this technique should be carefully chosen.