Objective To study the effect of early enteral nutrition combined with parenteral nutrition on patients who have received esophageal cancer surgery.Methods One hundred and eighty-three patients with esophageal cancer treated in the First Department of Thoracic Surgery between April 2016 and April 2017 were randomly selected as subjects. They were divided into the study group (n=91) and control group (n=92).The study group was subjected to a combination of enteral and parenteral nutrition while the control group was given parenteral nutrition for seven days before they resumed normal diet.Three days before surgery, three days and one week after surgery, the European nutritional risk screening scale (Nutritional risk screening 2002, NRS2002) and CHristensens method were used to evaluate fatigue indexes and levels of prealbumin, plasma albumin and hemoglobin, respectively.Results Three days and one week after surgery, the number of patients with a nutritional risk assessment score less than 3 points was 24 (38.46%) and 35(26.37%) respectively, larger than 22 (26.09%) and 24 (23.91%)of the control group,so the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). At 3d and 7d after surgery, the fatigue indexes in the study group were respectively(6.21±0.37、3.37±0.63),compared to(7.36±0.52、6.81±0.29)in the control group. At 7d after surgery, the average levels of prealbumin and plasma albumin were higher than in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusions Early enteral and parenteral nutrition can reduce the nutritional risk indexes and fatigue indexes of patients with esophageal cancer.