Objective To investigate the factors affecting surgical effects and prognosis of patients with primary cardiac tumors so as to provide the effective guidance for cardiac tumor surgery. Methods The cases who received cardiac tumor surgeries in our hospital from January 1990 to September 2014 were analyzed. The clinical data including family history, heart function, tumor size, tumor distribution, pathological type, etc. were investigated; their correlations with effect and prognosis of cardiac tumor surgery were also explored. Results The pathological type, tumor size (range of lesion) and preoperative cardiac function had significant effects on surgical curative effect. The patients with benign myxoma, tumor size <100 cm3 or good cardiac function obtained a better outcome than those with malignant tumor, tumor size ≥300 cm3 or poor heart function. The patients who were younger, suffered from benign myxoma, had better cardiac function, or did not have preoperative cardiovascular disease had a significantly longer survival time than those who were older, suffered from malignant tumor, or had poor heart function. Correlation analysis showed that pathological type, tumor size and preoperative cardiac function had positive correlations with the clinical effect; while cardiovascular disease history and postoperative cardiac function had negative correlations with postoperative survival time. Conclusions The risk factors of surgical effect for patients with primary cardiac tumors involve malignant tumor, a large tumor size and poor preoperative heart function; the protective factors of  prognosis are absence of cardiovascular disease history and good postoperative cardiac function.