Objective To investigate the effect of short-term complications after D2 radical gastrectomy on long-term survival rate of gastric cancer patients. Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted on 421 patients with gastric cancer who underwent D2 radical gastrectomy. According to the short-term postoperative complications, they were divided into experimental group (complication group, n=76) and control group (without complication group, n=345). In order to reduce the selection bias, the long-term survival rate of the two groups was tested by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis method after balancing the variables by propensity score matching (PSM). Log rank method was used for univariate analysis and Cox multivariate analysis was used for prognostic factors. Results There was no significant difference in long-term survival rate between the experimental group and the control group (P > 0.05). Histological type, lymph node metastasis rate and pTNM stage were independent risk factors for long-term survival. Conclusion The short-term complications after D2 radical gastrectomy have no significant impact on the long-term survival rate of gastric cancer patients, but it has certain clinical significance to actively prevent and control complications.