Objective To study and compare the clinical efficacy of lumbar cistern continuous drainage and lumbar puncture drainage for severe subarachnoid hemorrhage after clipping aneurysm. Methods A total of 100 patients with severe subarachnoid hemorrhage from July 2014 to June 2017 in Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University were randomly selected and divided into study group and control group， with 50 cases in each. The patients in the study group underwent continuous lumbar drainage after surgical clipping of aneurysm， while the patients in the control group were treated with lumbar puncture after surgical clipping. The clinical curative effects and complications were compared between the two groups. Results After treatment， the time for headache relief and intracranial pressure reducing to normal of the study group were significantly lower than those of the control group（ P＜0.05）. The total effective rate of the study group（ 78.00%） was significantly higher than that of the control group（ 42.00%）（ χ2=13.50， P＜ 0.05）. The incidence of cerebral vasospasm and hydrocephalus complication was 14.00% and 8.00% respectively， which was significantly lower than that of the control group（ 42.00%，28.00%）（χ2=9.72， 9.07；P＜ 0.05）. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of rehemorrhage and cerebral infarction（ P＞0.05）. The scores of GCS of both groups before treatment was significantly lower than those after the treatment（ P＜0.05）. The GCS of the study group after treatment was significantly higher than that of control group（ P ＜ 0.05）. Conclusions The continuous lumbar drainage after surgical clipping of aneurysm with high curative rate and low incidence of complications， which can significantly improve the patient's prognosis.