ObjectiveTo explore the value of geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) and sarcopenia on predicting postoperative complications in elderly patients with gastric cancer. MethodsAccording to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the elderly (aged ≥60 years) patients with gastric cancer underwent radical gastrectomy in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Xuzhou Central Hospital from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2021 were retrospectively gathered. The occurrence of postoperative complications (grade 2 or beyond by the Clavien-Dindo classification) was analyzed. The risk factors affecting postoperative complications were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to construct the prediction model, then was visualized by drawing a nomogram. The differentiation of the nomogram between the patients with postoperative complications and without postoperative complications was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The accuracy of the nomogram was evaluated by the calibration curve. Further, the clinical net benefit rate was analyzed by the decision curve analysis (DCA) to evaluate the clinical practicability. ResultsA total of 236 patients were gathered, 97 (41.1%) of whom had postoperative complications during hospitalization. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the age, gender, GNRI, sarcopenia, surgical mode, and American Society of Aneshesiologists classification were the factors influencing the postoperative complications (P<0.05). The differentiation of nomogram based on the influencing factors was well, the area under the ROC curve was 0.732. The calibration curve showed that the model prediction curve was close to the ideal curve. The clinical net benefit rate by the DCA was higher when the probability of postoperative complications was 0.18 to 0.72. ConclusionsThe efficiency of nomogram based on GNRI and sarcopenia is well for predicting the occurrence of postoperative complications in elderly patients with gastric cancer. However, the nomogram needs to be further validated by prospective studies and external data.