Abstract Background 20 million people with inguinal hernias are operated annually throughout the world. Severe chronic pain after hernia repair effects social life, daily activity and overall quality of life (QL). In medicine, QL is assessed by the level of well-being and satisfaction with those aspects of life that are affected by the disease and its treatment. The Short Form-36 is (SF-36) a validated indicator of overall health status. Method this study was to evaluate QL by SF-36 questionnaire in patients, who underwent inguinal hernioplasty (open surgery – Lichtenstein tension-free mesh inguinal hernia repair or laparoscopic surgery – transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP)). Results: State the main findings, including important numerical values. Results The majority had unilateral hernias 89.0% and the most common surgical technique was Lichtenstein’s repair (82.4%). The postoperative QL was significantly better after surgery. Comparing two groups of patients after surgery, only the pain domain of the questionnaire was worse in patients operated by Lichtenstein repair: 46.5%/39.8% experienced mild pain, 38.6%/42.0% experience moderate pain and only 14.9%/18.2% experienced severe pain. Conclusion Results showed that 213 (86.9%) patients felt that their QL was satisfactory after the hernia repair, with most of them being from the age group of 19–39 years (93.2%).