Table 1. Basic characteristics of included studies.
| Author | Chronology | Country | Study design | Study period | Anaesthetic method | Surgical procedures [number of ports] | Sample size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCD | CD | |||||||
| Luckraz et al. (19) | 2007 | UK | RCT | NA | I | LB [3] | 30 | 30 |
| Park et al. (32) | 2018 | Korea | RCT | 2015–2016 | I | LWR [3] | 58 | 61 |
| Lesser et al. (33) | 2019 | Germany | RCT | 2015–2018 | I | LB [3] | 37 | 37 |
| Liao et al. (34) | 2020 | China | RCT | 2016–2017 | I | LWR [1] | 50 | 50 |
| Steunenberg et al. (27) | 2017 | Netherlands | P | 2011–2014 | I | LWR [3] | 28 | 21 |
| Nakashima et al. (28) | 2011 | Japan | R | 2000–2009 | I | LWR [3] | 132 | 201 |
| Yang et al. (29) | 2017 | China | R | 2015–2016 | NI | LWR [1] | 30 | 30 |
| Lu et al. (30) | 2017 | China | R | 2013–2015 | I | LWR [3] | 44 | 45 |
| Liu et al. (38) | 2019 | China | R | 2016–2018 | I | MTR [3‡] | 30 | 30 |
| Liu et al. (39) | 2020 | China | R | 2016–2019 | NI | LWR [1] | 122 | 13 |
‡, most patients received three-ports thoracoscopic surgery while selective patients received reduced-port technique. CD, chest drain group; I, intubated anaesthesia; LB, lung biopsy; LWR, lung wedge resection; MTR, mediastinal tumour resection; NCD, no chest drain group; NI, non-intubated anaesthesia; NA, not available; P, prospective study; R, retrospective study; RCT, randomized controlled trial; UK, United Kingdom.