Objective: To analyze the correlation between clinical nursing compliance and postoperative complications in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods: The adherence of 99 patients underwent esophageal cancer radical surgery were assessed. The clinical nursing compliance includes 12 items, such as full compliance, partial compliance and non-compliance, which were scored as 2 points, 1 point and 0 point respectively. The total score of the 12 items was regard as the comprehensive score, which ranged from 0 to 24 points. The correlation between the patient’s comprehensive score and gender, the staging of esophageal cancer, the recovery time of gastrointestinal function, the average hospital days, the incidence of complications in 3 months after surgery was analyzed. Results: The lowest score is 5 points and the highest is 24 points among the 99 cases, 5–22 (14.50±2.85) points in male, 14–24 (16.50±3.72) points in female, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); the scores in the advanced patients were 18–24 (18.32±4.12) points, 12–23 (15.40±3.16) points in the medium patients, and 5–23 (14.70±4.21) points in the early patients, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). According to nursing compliance scores, the patients were divided into three groups: group A (0–8 points, n=8), group B (9–16 points, n=34), group C (17–24 points, n=53). The incidence of postoperative complications was 50.00%, 29.41%, 20.75% respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); gastrointestinal recovery time [group A (52.50 ±4.75) h; group B (45.30±3.36) h, group C (38.20±3.48) h; P<0.05] and average hospitalization days [group A (11.51 ±2.50) d; group B (10.25±1.75) d; group C (8.25±2.25) d; P<0.05] significantly. Conclusion: The score of clinical nursing compliance in patients with esophageal cancer is negatively correlated with gender, disease staging, postoperative complications, postoperative exhaust time and hospital day.