【Objective】 To investigate the effect of autologous blood transfusion(ABT) drainage system and simple drainage(using drainage bags) on the prognosis of patients after lumbar surgery. 【Methods】 The patients admitted to the Department of Orthopedics of our hospital from August 2018 to September 2020 who underwent posterior open lumbar internal fixation and fusion were divided into two groups according to different drainage methods adopted after surgery: 50 patients were randomly selected from the patients who received postoperative ABT system for drainage as ABT group, and 50 patients were randomly selected from the patients who received postoperative drainage by drainage bag as simple drainage bgroup(the control group). The postoperative drainage volume, actual postoperative drainage, total dominant blood loss, total autologous blood transfusion volume, as well as the postoperative anemia indexes, infection indexes and albumin levels in d1, d3 and d7 of the 2 groups were retrospectively analyzed. 【Results】 The gender, age, operation duration and operation segment of the 2 groups were comparable (P>0.05), and preoperative Hb, Hct, ALB, WBC, NE%, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative autologous blood transfusion volume and actual postoperative drainage volume were similar (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in Hb, Hct, ALB, WBC, NE% and CRP in postoperative d1, d3 and d7, as well as in preoperative and postoperative Hb, Hct and ALB, and in postoperative and preoperative WBC, NE% and CRP (P>0.05). The postoperative drainage volume (mL) and total dominant blood loss (mL) in ABT group and the control group were 554.40±176.82 vs 337.80±102.43, and 1 048.40±282.87 vs 791.80±277.02, respectively (P<0.05). 【Conclusion】 The use of ABT drainage system after lumbar surgery increased the drainage volume compared with simple drainage, but the improvement of anemia, albumin and infection was not obvious. ABT system should not be used routinely for drainage after lumbar surgery.