Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) may extend the length of stay of patients and even increase perioperative mortality after video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) pulmonary surgery. Thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB) can provide effective analgesia after VATS, however little is known about the effect of TPVB on PPCs. This study aims to determine whether TPVB combined with general anesthesia results in reducing PPCs and achieve perioperative lung protection in VATS pulmonary surgery compared with simple general anesthesia. Methods: A total of 302 patients undergoing VATS lobectomy/segmentectomy will be randomly divided into two groups: Paravertebral block group (PV group) and Control group (C group). Patients of PV group will receive thoracic paravertebral block: 15 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine will be administered to the T4 and T7 thoracic paravertebral spaces respectively before general anesthesia. Patients of C group will not undergo intervention. Both groups of patients adopted protective ventilation strategy during operation. Perioperative protective mechanical ventilation and standard fluid management will be applied in both groups. Patient controlled intravenous analgesia was used for postoperative analgesia. The primary endpoint is the composite outcome of PPCs within 7 days after surgery. Secondary end points include blood gas analysis, postoperative lung ultrasound score, NRS score, QoR-15 score, hospitalization related indicators and long-term prognosis indicators.