Of 1202 hernia repairs performed according to the modified Lotheissen-McVay technique 1020 (84.9%) were followed up. The frequency of hernia increases with increasing age. The total recurrence rate after an average follow-up of 9 years was 9.2% for primary hernias and 11.5% for recurrences. The recurrence rate depends on the follow-up time and on sex. For primary hernias the recurrence rate was 0.7% after 1 year, 5% after 5 years, 9.1% after 10 years and 11.5% after 15 years. After 1 year the recurrence rate was 0.6% for women and 0.8% for men; after 5 years the corresponding figures were 3.9% and 5.2% and after 10 years, 6.6% and 9.5%. The results after repair of recurrent hernias are not much worse than those obtained in the case of primary hernias. The recurrence rate depends on the surgeon's experience. We found a recurrence rate of 3.6% in 319 operations performed by our most experienced surgeon, as against 16.3% among those performed by inexperienced surgeons. Therefore, careful assistance is paramount for the inexperienced surgeon, because training is indispensable. The most frequent complications of primary operations were hematoma and seroma (4.4%), wound infections (1.7%), pulmonary embolism (0.9%), deep vein thrombosis (0.7%) and testicular atrophy (0.4%). The traditional Lotheissen-McVay technique for hernia repair still has a place in the surgical treatment of hernia. This technique can be used as the standard treatment for all kinds of inguinal or femoral hernias, without higher complication rates, and it yields especially good results in recurrent hernias.