Objective To investigate the factors for pulmonary infection in patients with neurosurgical diseases, and to provide a reference for reducing pulmonary infection rate in clinical practice. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 2 190 patients in Department of Neurosurgery in our hospital from January 2015 to May 2018, including general status, clinical manifestations, surgical data, and laboratory data. The incidence rate of pulmonary infection and related influencing factors were analyzed. Results Among the 2 190 patients, 158 (7.2%) had pulmonary infection, and there was no significant difference between male and female patients (P>0.05). An age of ≥ 60 years, severe disturbance of consciousness, a serum albumin level of >40 g/L, a length of hospital stay of >14 days, tracheal intubation or incision, respirator therapy, surgical trauma, diabetes mellitus, a history of smoking, prophylactic use of antibiotics, and nasogastric feeding were closely associated with pulmonary infection (P<0.05). The multivariate analysis showed that age, disturbance of consciousness, serum albumin, length of hospital stay, tracheal intubation or incision, ventilator therapy, diabetes mellitus, a history of smoking, and prophylactic use of antibiotics were independent factors (P<0.05). Conclusions The factors for pulmonary infection should be closely monitored in patients, which may help to develop clinical treatment measures and reduce the incidence rate of pulmonary infection in hospitalized patients in department of neurosurgery.