Abstract: Objective: To explore the effects of different anesthesia methods on the postoperative pulmonary infection in elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma.Methods: Eighty patients with esophageal cancer were divided into the control group and observation group according to the anesthesia method(40 cases each group).The control group and observation group were anesthetized using single lumen endotracheal intubation and single lumen endotracheal intubation combined with epidural,respectively.The amount of bleeding,operation time,postoperative 2 d visual analogue score,hospitalization time,recovery time,extubation time and postoperative pulmonary infection in two groups were observed.Results: Compared with the control group,the recovery time and extubation time in the observation group significantly shortened(P<0.01),and the incidence of pulmonary infection in observation group was significantly less than that in control group(P<0.05).Conclusions: General anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia is suit for elderly patients with esophageal cancer,the anesthesia effect of which is ideal.The incidence of pulmonary infection after general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation is lower,which is worthy of clinical application.