BACKGROUND: Assessment of preoperative physiological status is crucial for optimizing clinical outcomes in patients undergoing surgery for esophageal carcinoma (EC). We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of pulmonary dysfunctions and their relationships with other physiological factors, especially sarcopenia, in EC patients receiving esophagectomy. METHODS: In total, 411 EC patients who underwent esophagectomy between 2006 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Preoperative pulmonary functions were evaluated based on %vital capacity (%VC) and forced expiratory volume (FEV) 1.0%. The thresholds were set as the lowest quartile (99% for %VC and 68.6% for FEV1.0%) in this cohort. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients (24.8%) had low %VC (%VC < 99%), which was significantly associated with age, comorbidity, sarcopenia and postoperative complications, while not correlating with pathological variables. The overall survival (OS) of patients in the low %VC group was significantly poorer than that of those in the high %VC group (P < 0.001), especially in those with pStage 0-II diseases (P < 0.001). In contrast, survival was not stratified by FEV1.0% (P = 0.80). Notably, patients with both low %VC and sarcopenia showed very poor 5-year OS (30.3%). Multivariate analysis revealed low %VC to be independently associated with poor OS (P = 0.03). In the cause-specific survival analyses, low %VC was an independent predictor of deaths from non-EC-related causes (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative low %VC was independently associated with poor survival outcomes, especially when present in combination with sarcopenia, due to an increased risk of death from non-EC-related causes. Preoperative spirometry testing is useful for predicting long-term outcomes in EC patients undergoing esophagectomy.