Upper abdominal surgery has a high incidence of postoperative respiratory complications. Although operations involving a thoracic as well as an upper abdominal incision as encountered in esophageal surgery are likely to be associated with an even higher complication rate and perhaps permanent alterations of respiratory function, only a few studies have addressed this problem. We evaluated the postoperative course of patients undergoing thoracoabdominal esophagectomy with esophagogastrostomy. Twenty patients were evaluated, of whom 10 (50%) developed respiratory complications as defined by our criteria, which were the simultaneous occurrence of rectal temperature over 38°C on the first postoperative day and radiographic evidence of pulmonary infiltration. Although there is no general consensus regarding the diagnostic criteria of a postoperative pulmonary complication, we were able to validate the clinical relevance of our definition by showing that these patients suffered from a more severe and more prolonged impairment of global oxygen exchange than those who did not fulfill the criteria. They also required a longer period of respiratory support (median duration of intubation 12 vs. 3 days,P<0.005). A comparison of the preoperative pulmonary function with that determined at least 6 months after the operation showed that only vital capacity (VC) and total lung capacity (TLC) were significantly (P<0.05) reduced following the operation, but not to a clinically relevant degree (VC ‐6%, TLC