Abstract: OBJECTIVE To explore the prevention effect of different antibiotic drugs on postoperative incision infection in elderly patients undergoing lumbar surgery.METHODS During the period from Mar 2016 to Feb 2019, 108 elderly patients who underwent lumbar surgery in the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University were enrolled. According to the use of different types of antibiotic drugs, they were divided into the cefoperazone tazobactam group（group A1）, ceftizoxime sodium group（group A2）, cefminox sodium group（group A3） and cefazolin sodium pentahydrate group（group A4）. The occurrence of postoperative incision infection and intervertebral fusion in each group were observed.RESULTS Postoperative wound infection occurred in one case（3.70%）, 2 cases（7.41%）, 0 case（0.00%） and 3 cases（11.11%） of group A1, A2, A3 and A4, respectively. There was no significant differences in incidence of postoperative wound infection among the four groups. Eight strains of pathogens were isolated from 6 cases with postoperative incision infection, including 3 strains of Escherichia coli, 2 strains of Staphylococcus aureus, 1 strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis, 1 strain of Acinetobacter baumannii and 1 strain of Staphylococcus haemolyticus. after surgery, levels of alanine aminotransferase（ALT） and aspartate aminotransferase（AST） in the four groups were significantly higher than that before surgery, while levels of Total bilirubin（TBIL）, direct bilirubin（DBil）, globulin（GLB）, total protein（TP）, albumin（ALB）, uric acid（UA） and blood urea nitrogen（BUN） were decreased（P＜0.05）. After surgery, compared with the group A1, levels of AST and ALT were decreased significantly in the group A3 and A4（P＜0.05）; Compared with group A2, levels of ALT and AST were significantly decreased in groups A3 and A4（P＜0.05）.CONCLUSION The prevention effects of cefoperazone tazobactam, ceftizoxime sodium, cefminox sodium and cefazolin sodium pentahydrate on postoperative wound infection are comparable in elderly patients undergoing lumbar surgery, and they do not effect postoperative lumbar fusion.