Objective To investigate the genetic polymorphism of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ( MRSA) isolated from hospital acquired pneumonia. Methods Seventy-four hospitalized patients were diagnosed as noscomial MRSA pneumonia from January 2007 to January 2008 in Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong Univesity. The genes of MRSA were amplified by random amplified polymorphic DNA typing ( RAPD) assay in 82 clinical isolates from these patients. Results Two to 15 amplified DNA fragments were observed in agarose gel and they were classified into 11 genotypes. Genotypes Ⅲ, Ⅵ and Ⅶ ( 32. 56% , 30. 23% and 13. 95% , respectively) were mainly isolated from the ICU. Both independent genotypes and overlapping genotpyes with those from ICU were identified in isolates from the departments of geriatrics, emergency and respiratory medicine. Outbreak or cluster cases ( 48. 65% ) were found in 36 of the 74 patients while all outbreak cases occurred in the ICU. Conclusions Noscomial MRSA pneumonia is easy to disseminate and small-scale outbreak may occur especially in ICU. RAPD is valuable for identification and prevention of the spread of MRSA in hospital.