Abstract: OBJECTIVE To study and analyze the influences of different anesthesia methods on postoperative infection of elderly patients in department of orthopedics. METHODS A total of 200 elderly patients who received orthopedic surgery in our hospital from Mar. 2015 to Oct. 2016 were selected, and the patients were divided into three groups according to different anesthesia methods: group A (tracheal intubation general anesthesia, n=66), group B (epidural anesthesia, n=74), and group C (combined spinal-epidural anesthesia, n=60). The postoperative recovery situations in the three groups were retrospectively analyzed, and the distribution of postoperative infection sites and the ratio of serum IL-6/ IL-10 in different time points were comparatively analyzed. RESULTS The infection rate in group A (18.20%) was significantly higher than that in group B (6.75%) and group C (5.01%). With the surgery performed, the IL-6/IL-10 ratio was increased gradually before anesthesia, at the end of operation and at 24~48h after operation. The IL-6/IL-10 ratio at 24-28 hours after surgery in group A (10.94±8.52) was significantly higher than that in group B (7.88±4.52) and group C (7.04±3.57) (P＜0.05). CONCLUSION Tracheal intubation general anesthesia is not suitable for elderly patients, so in order to reduce the infections during hospitalization and improve the surgery quality, epidural anesthesia or combined spinal-epidural anesthesia is recommended.