Impact of Incision Level on Early Postoperative Pain after Microsurgical Varicocelectomy in Young Men with High Occupational Physical Demands

Microsurgical varicocelectomy is the preferred surgical treatment for painful varicocele. However, whether incision level influences early postoperative recovery in young men with high occupational physical demands remains unclear. This study compared early postoperative outcomes between inguinal and subinguinal microsurgical approaches. We conducted a retrospective comparative study of 98 young men with high occupational physical demands who underwent microsurgical varicocelectomy for painful left varicocele between January 2022 and July 2024. Patients were allocated to the Inguinal Group (MIV, n = 50) or the Subinguinal Group (MSV, n = 48) using a non-randomized alternating allocation sequence based on admission order. Key outcome measures included operative time, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores for wound pain (postoperative days 1, 3, and 5) and scrotal pain (postoperative months 1 and 3), rescue analgesia usage, and complication rates. Overall pain improvement (VAS ≤ 2 at 3 months) was achieved in 95.9