It's very easy if you know what you're doing. We had a patient who went to the emergency room cuz he passed out. An in-experienced intern took the staples out. He didn't have a proper staple remover and basically yanked them out with pliers. It ended up leaving wider than normal scar in the section he did the worst yanking. The remaining 2/3rd was much better when he got better at removing them. In most cases, the removal of the staples is straight forward. It stings as each staple is removed so it's adviseable for the patient to take a pain pill 1/2 hour before to take the edge off.