ObjectiveWe aimed to further investigate the feasibility of using small bore chest tubes or even without chest tube insertion after da Vinci robot-assisted thoracic surgery. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed initial 70 patients between September 12, 2014 and March 30, 2015 as a control group at the department of thoracic surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, and proposed four schemes. There are 31 males and 39 females with mean age of 57.1±9.8 (ranged from 30-80 years). We applied those four schemes for the last 30 patients as an experimental group. There are 12 males and 18 females with mean age of 58.8±8.1 (ranged 42-73 years). ResultsThe days in hospital after surgery ranged 2-25 days and there was no severe complication. After the surgery, the pain scores of the trial group are lower than that of the control group. And the schemes 1 and schemes 2 of trial group reduced significantly than the control group (P<0.05). There is no significant difference of the rate of the complication caused by poor drainage between the trial group and the control group (P>0.05). But the pain score after surgery is lower than that of the control group (P<0.05). ConclusionOptimizing thoracic drainage strategy after da Vinci robot-assisted thoracic surgery is safe, possible and helpful to relieve postoperative pain.