Abstract: OBJECTIVE To study the effect of glucocorticoid administration on postoperative peripheral leukocytes in spinal surgery patients. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted on 986 patients of spinal surgery in the Lishui Central Hospital from January 2015 to June 2018. The patients were divided into hormone group(n=398) and hormone-free group(n=588) according to glucocorticoid administration. The changes in the total number of leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil count between the two groups before surgery, 0-2 d after surgery, 3-6 d after surgery and 7-10 d after surgery were compared by counting the patients' basic information, peripheral blood leukocyte count. RESULTS Compared with preoperative level, the leukocyte and neutrophil count increased in the hormone group, and were the highest at 0-2 d after surgery, and the count at 7-10 d after surgery were lower but still significantly higher than that of the hormone-free group(P<0.01), reaching (8.66±2.12)×10⁹·L^-1 and (6.03±0.64)×10⁹·L^-1 respectively. Lymphocyte and eosinophil count showed a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. There was a significant or extremely significant difference tendency after treatment compared with that before surgery(P<0.05 or P<0.01). Glucocorticoid dosage in the range of 40-440 mg was positively correlated with the increase of leukocyte level. CONCLUSION Glucocorticoid administration can increase the peripheral blood leukocyte count after spinal surgery.