When it comes to open-heart surgery, people immediately think of the huge surgical incision accompanied by severe incisional pain, the fear of moving and coughing, and the soreness and numbness of the incision site after recovery, in addition to the large oblique incision scar. Therefore, most patients are afraid of open-heart surgery. However, with the development of medicine and the advancement of minimally invasive surgery technology, more and more patients have started to get rid of the great pain after this surgery, and chest surgery has become less painful and scary. Minimally invasive surgery is an emerging surgical technique led by endoscopic technology. With the progress of medical development, minimally invasive surgery is gradually being accepted as a surgical concept that minimizes the trauma and pain of the operated patient on the basis of being able to achieve the treatment purpose. For thoracic surgery, “minimally invasive surgery” in a narrow sense refers to thoracoscopic surgery and small incision techniques in the chest, which are different from traditional open-heart surgery. Thoracoscopic surgery is performed by making several “keyholes” in the chest wall and inserting a thoracoscope with a camera and corresponding surgical instruments into the chest cavity; the small incision technique is performed with or without the assistance of a thoracoscope by making a 5-13 cm incision in the chest wall without removing the ribs or cutting off the major muscles of the chest wall. Compared with traditional open-chest surgery, both techniques greatly reduce the postoperative pain of patients with less trauma, and with postoperative analgesic measures, patients can be almost pain-free, which is conducive to patients’ postoperative recovery, so that patients can get out of bed within 1-2 days after surgery, and the hospital recovery time is significantly shortened, and the incidence of chronic incisional pain left after surgery is significantly reduced. At the same time, because there is no huge incision scar left after surgery, it avoids affecting the aesthetics and is more easily accepted by young patients. In addition, some elderly patients who cannot tolerate traditional open-heart surgery due to low lung function can also be given the opportunity to have surgery for the purpose of treating their diseases. Of course, thoracoscopic and small incision techniques have their own limitations and are not suitable for all thoracic surgeries, and complex thoracic surgeries may still require traditional open-heart methods. However, we believe that with the continuous development of medicine and the maturity of technology, minimally invasive surgical techniques will benefit more and more patients, away from post-surgical pain, and benefit more patients.