Objective To explore the practicability and clinical significance of gastric tube insertion by left recumbent position for patients with exanimation. Methods We divided 100 patients with exanimation who needed gastric tube insertion into the routien group and the left-recumbent-position group with 50 cases in each group randomly and adopted routine insertion method and insertion by left recumbent position.The success rate of tube insertion and incidence of complications were observed in the two groups.Results The one-time success rate of insertion was higher while the incidence of complication was lower in the left-recumbent-position group compared with the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Gastric tube insertion by left recumbent position proved to be a desirable method in that it could increase the onetime success rate of insertion and decrease the complications.So it worth widely applying.