Abstract:Objective To investigate the associations of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) with postoperative pulmonary infection in elderly patients with hip fractures.Methods The medical records of 242 elderly patients with hip fractures treated at the Chinese People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force 903rd Hospital between January 2023 and January 2026 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the occurrence of pulmonary infection during the postoperative hospital stay, the patients were divided into a pulmonary infection group (n = 26) and a non-pulmonary infection group (n = 216). Preoperative clinical data and PNI and SII levels were compared between the groups. Multivariable stepwise logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with postoperative pulmonary infection, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the predictive value of PNI and SII.Results The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), red blood cell distribution width, and SII were higher in the pulmonary infection group than in the non-pulmonary infection group, whereas PNI was lower (P < 0.05). Multivariable stepwise logistic regression showed that COPD [O^R = 3.149 (95% CI: 1.388, 7.145)], low PNI [O^R = 0.283 (95% CI: 0.131, 0.610) ], and high SII [O^R = 2.902 (95% CI: 1.476, 5.706) ] were risk factors for postoperative pulmonary infection in elderly patients with hip fractures (P < 0.05). The sensitivities of PNI, SII, and their combination for predicting postoperative pulmonary infection were 73.08% (95% CI: 0.520, 0.877), 65.38% (95% CI: 0.444, 0.821), and 88.46% (95% CI: 0.687, 0.970), respectively, and the corresponding specificities were 68.98% (95% CI: 0.623, 0.750), 73.61% (95% CI: 0.671, 0.793), and 89.35% (95% CI: 0.843, 0.930), respectively.Conclusion PNI and SII are associated with postoperative pulmonary infection in elderly patients with hip fractures. Their combined use may improve predictive performance.