The invention discloses a sputum pretreatment method for quickly carrying out nucleic acid detection. The sputum pretreatment method comprises the following steps of a first step, adding a NaOH solution with a concentration of 4 to 30 percent into a collected sputum specimen, wherein the amount of the NaOH solution is 4 times that of the collected sputum specimen, carrying out vortex oscillation to liquefy the collected sputum specimen, and standing for 5min to 10min at a room temperature; a second step, adding a citric acid solution with a concentration of 20 to 80 percent into specimen liquid treated in the first step, and uniformly oscillating and mixing; a third step, adding thiourea with a concentration of 5 to 14 percent into specimen liquid treated in the second step, uniformly oscillating and mixing, then standing at the room temperature, and removing a deposit. The sputum pretreatment method has the advantages that the method is simple and quick, as the entire pretreatment process does not need centrifugation, the operation is convenient, and the consumed time is shorter (less than 15 minutes); the specimen liquid pretreated by the method provided by the invention is higher in sensitivity; 30 bacteria per milliliter can be lowest detected; the specificity is good, and according to a clinical specimen verification result, the negative coincidence rate can reach 100 percent.