BACKGROUND: Respiratory complications have been the main cause of death after a resection of esophageal cancer. This retrospective study was conducted to investigate the effect of thoracic epidural analgesia on respiratory complications after a resection of esophageal cancer. METHODS: This study enrolled two groups of patients undergoing an esophageal resection during a 7-year period. The first group (control group) was comprised of 105 patients in whom thoracic epidural analgesia was not used. The second group (epidural group) was comprised of 121 patients in whom thoracic epidural analgesia was done routinely. The latter group received an initial bolus of 0.1% bupivacaine 10 ml with 2 mg of morphine at the end of surgery and an infusion of 2 ml/hr of the solution comprised of 0.1% bupivacaine with 0.2 mg/ml morphine for 3 days. The incidence of respiratory complications and the duration of ventilator care and ICU stay were investigated by reviewing of charts. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the incidence of respiratory complications and the duration of ventilator care and ICU stay in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the routine use of thoracic epidural analgesia did not reduce the incidence of respiratory complications after resection of esophageal cancer.