<h3>BACKGROUND CONTEXT</h3> Prophylactic drain placement is common practice in the prevention of interstitial fluid collection, hematoma, and/or pseudomeningocele after spine surgery. However, there is no standard protocol for the management of drains, specifically regarding when they should be removed. <h3>PURPOSE</h3> To compare surgical outcomes based on drain duration and quantity of drain output before removal. <h3>STUDY DESIGN/SETTING</h3> Retrospective cohort study. <h3>PATIENT SAMPLE</h3> Patients >18 years of age who underwent lumbar spinal surgery with drain placement and available drain output data. <h3>OUTCOME MEASURES</h3> Thirty- and 90-day readmission, number of surgical take-backs during readmission, wound complication rate, and infection rate. <h3>Methods</h3> A retrospective review of patients at a single academic institution undergoing lumbar surgery from April 2017 to March 2020 was performed. Patient demographics, 8-hour drain output before removal, and duration of drain were retrospectively reviewed. Cohorts were dichotomized by the 3rd quartile for last 8-hour drain output (≥40cc or <40 cc) and duration of drain (>2 days or ≤2 days). <h3>Results</h3> A total of 1,166 patients were included in the analysis. The mean duration of drains was 2.45 days, last 8-hour shift output was 29.5 mL, levels fused 1.93, and length of stay was 3.76 days. The readmission rate was 9.51% with 69.4% occurring in the first 30 days and 28.8% within 90 days after discharge. The prevalence of infection was 1.63% and wound complication was 0.6%. Of total patients, 342 had ≥40 cc output over last 8-hour shift prior to removal, and 825 patients had less than 40 cc. The mean output for each group was 65.3 mL and 14.7 mL, respectively. Patients in the ≥40 cc group were younger age (p<0.049), had drains left in for a significantly shorter duration (2.2 days vs 2.6 days, p<0.001), and had shorter lengths of stay (3.5 days vs 3.9 days, p<0.001) compared to those in the <40 cc group. There was no difference in infection rate or wound complication rate between cohorts. Comparison based on drain output found no differences in readmission rate or rate of revision surgery. On multivariate analysis, the rate of readmission was not associated with differences in mean age, length of stay, or duration of drain. There were 480 patients in the >2 days group and 687 patients in the ≤2 days group. Drains remaining for >2 days were associated with older (p=0.03) and female (p=0.01) patients, with a greater number of levels fused (p<0.001) and decompressed (p<0.001) and longer length of stay (p<0.001) compared to patients with drains removed earlier. No difference in surgical readmission was found based upon drain duration, readmission due to wound complication, surgery during readmission, or take back due to infections. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The duration of drain placement or output at removal after lumbar spine surgery does not appear to influence the rates of infection, wound complications, readmission, or revision surgery. <h3>FDA DEVICE/DRUG STATUS</h3> This abstract does not discuss or include any applicable devices or drugs.