Objective To explore the effect of comprehensive nursing intervention in perioperative nursing of esophageal cancer. Methods A total of 78 patients with esophageal cancer who were operated on in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 2016 to December 2018 were selected by purposive sampling method. All the selected patients were divided into control group and experimental group, with 39 cases in each. The control group received general routine nursing, while the experimental group received comprehensive nursing intervention during perioperative period. The satisfaction, complication rate, quality of life and anxiety state of the two groups were compared. Results After the intervention,the patients' satisfaction in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group, the incidence of complications was lower than that in the control group, the quality of life score was higher than that in the control group, the anxiety score was lower than that in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.05). Conclusions Comprehensive nursing intervention can reduce the incidence of complications, improve the quality of life and alleviate anxiety of patients after esophageal cancer surgery,which is worthy of clinical reference.