Pain is very subjective. On a scale of 1-10, patient A’s pain score of 2 may be patient B’s score of 7. Nonetheless, there are ways to try reduce the discomfort and pain.
Pre-operatively, the surgical technique would be the most important. Why would someone opt for a wound that is 8-10cm long, compared to one which is 1-2cm long?
Example of a open scar:
I would expect more pain from a longer and larger wound. Post-operatively, we would give medication to reduce inflammation and pain, and this helps in pain control and relief.
Generally speaking, the pain from keyhole surgery is less than that of the traditional method. A paper was published last year (2017) in an international orthopaedic journal, which showed that the pain scores of patients who underwent keyhole surgery were significantly less than that of patients who had traditional open surgery.
I have had patients that did not complain of any pain at all after surgery, or at most, a slight discomfort.
