Objective To evaluate the effect of fast track surgery (FTS) after esophageal cancer surgery. Methods The randomized controlled trial (RCT) and observational studies about FTS for esophageal cancer in PubMed、EMbase、The Cochrane Library、Web of Science、CBM、CNKI and WanFang databases were searched up to May 2017. Then the studies were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria by two researchers. Data were analyzed by Stata12.0 software. Results Totally 13 RCTs and 5 observational studies with 2 447 patients were eligible for analysis. Compared with the control group, incidence of postoperative complications (OR=0.53, 95%CI 0.40 to 0.71, P<0.05) significantly reduced in the FTS group, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in readmission rate (OR=1.21, 95%CI 0.83 to 1.76, P=0.313) and 30 d mortality rate (OR=0.72, 95%CI 0.43 to 1.20, P=0.207). Conclusion FTS can safely and effectively accelerate the recovery of patients with esophageal cancer and it owns important clinical values.