Objective  To explore factors influencing duration of hospitalization and medical expenses in surgical patients, and the way to reduce the duration of hospitalization and medical expenses effect methods.Methods  One hundred and two patients undergoing gastric carcinoma operation were selected to investigate 65 factors factors such as medical quality and medical expenses with duration of hospitalization by monoanalysis and multianalysis.Results  The main factors that affect the duration of hospitalization were examinations performed associated diseases, the time confirmed when to receive operation, nosocomial infection, times of removing sutures, post operative hospital stay, age and so on. The main factors that affect medical expenses were occupation, diagnosis level, operation, postoperation, laboratory test, medical care system and so on. Conclusions  Improving hospital administration, medical quality and service level can shorten the duration of hospitalization and reduce medical expenses,thus alleviate patients’ costs.