Objective To explore the executive function in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Methods The evaluation of executive function was conducted in 63 mTBI patients in 1 week, 1, 3 and 6 month after injury and 60 health controls. The executive function was evaluated using Trail Making Test (TMTA), Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-revised (HVLT-R), Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-revised (BVMT-R), Stroop Color Word Tes and Con-tinuous Performance Test (CPT). Results There were significant differences between mTBI patients and controls in TM-TA, HVLT-R, BVMT-R, Stroop Color Word Test and CPT a week following TBI (P<0.05). There were a significant in-crease in scores of TMTA and a significant decrease in HVLT-R, BVMT-R, stroop and CPT-IP at 1, 3 and 6 month compared with 1 week following TBI (P<0.05). There were a significant decrease in TMTA and a significant increase in BVMT-R and stroop 1 month compared with 1 week following TBI (P<0.05). There were a significant increase in stroop, BVMT-R and CPT-IP at 3 month compared with 1 month following TBI (P<0.05). There was a significant increase in stroop and CPT-IP at 6 month compared with 3 month following TBI (P<0.05). Conclusions Patients with mTBI have executive function impairment. The recovery times of different executive function are different in patients with mTBI.