Abstract: OBJECTIVE To conduct the tracking study of elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies undergoing the surgery, analyze the causes of pulmonary infections in the elderly patients during the rehabilitation stage, and put forward the treatment measures so as to reduce the incidence of pulmonary infections. METHODS A total of 75 elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies who were hospitalized from Jan 2013 to Dec 2013 were enrolled in the study, then the surgical procedures and postoperative rehabilitation were tracked, the causes and risk factors for the infections were observed, and the prevention measures were formulated. RESULTS Of the 75 elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, 16 had the pulmonary infections, with the infection rate 21.3%. The ratio of the male patients with pulmonary infections to the female patients with pulmonary infections was about 2:1, and there were 10 cases of male and 6 cases of female. Totally 10 patients died of pulmonary infections, with the mortality rate 62.5%. The study concluded that the risk factors for the postoperative pulmonary infections in the elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies included the bedridden time, catheter indwelling time, and endotracheal intubation time. CONCLUSION The postoperative pulmonary infections are prevalent in the elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, the mortality rate is high, and the postoperative pulmonary infections may lead to great damage to the patients. It is necessary to strengthen the prevention during the postoperative rehabilitation stage according to the major risk factors for the pulmonary infections so as to raise the cure rate of the patients with pulmonary infections.