Objective To explore the effects of single-hole thoracoscopy and three-hole thoracoscopy on postoperative pain and quality of life in patients after pulmonary wedge resection. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on the clinical data of 97 patients with lung wedge resection from February 2019 to December 2021. According to the different surgical methods, they were divided into a single-hole group of 54 patients with single-hole thoracoscopy and a three-hole group of 43 patients with three-hole thoracoscopy. The postoperative pain and quality of life scores between the two groups of patients were compared. Results The pain scores of the single-hole group were significantly lower than those of the three-hole group on postoperative day 1, 2, and 3 （P<0.05）. The postoperative quality of life score of the single-hole group was significantly higher than that of the three-hole group （P<0.05）. Conclusion Patients undergoing lung wedge resection using single-hole thoracoscopy show reduced postoperative pain and improved quality of life than those using three-hole thoracoscopy, indicating that the surgery method has a good clinical application value.