Except for rare cases – such as infants, elderly and frail people who cannot tolerate surgery, and patients with advanced tumors – inguinal hernias require surgical management, and any medication or non-surgical local treatment is not effective for this disease. Because of the harmful nature of hernias and the fact that they cannot heal on their own, surgery for hernias should be done as early as possible; in late stages of the disease, surgery is difficult and ineffective. Surgery for inguinal hernia has a history of more than two thousand years and is one of the oldest surgical procedures. During its long history, there have been many surgical procedures and it can be said that it is one of the diseases with the largest variety of surgeries. It was only in the last decade or so, with the development of material science, that the emergence of hernia repair materials, commonly known as patches, has led to a new era of inguinal hernia surgery and a leap forward in surgical outcomes. Currently, patch-based tension-free repair is the gold standard in inguinal hernia surgery and has basically replaced the traditional procedure, which is commonly performed in hospitals at all levels. This procedure, understood in layman’s terms, involves repairing a defect in the inguinal region with a piece of artificial material that restores the strength of the abdominal wall while minimizing the patient’s postoperative discomfort and improving life treatment. There are also many different types of this procedure for different patients. In the Lichtenstein procedure, for example, which is the most performed and most classic procedure, the surgery can be performed under local or epidural anesthesia. An incision of about 6 cm (this length varies from person to person) is made in the inguinal region, the inguinal canal is dissected, the hernia sac is located and retracted, and the patch is then sutured and fixed to the tissue surrounding the inguinal canal. A skilled hernia surgeon can complete the procedure in less than an hour. No antibiotics or intravenous fluids are required during the perioperative period, stitches are usually not removed, and the patient can be out of bed the day after surgery and is usually discharged from the hospital 1-3 days after surgery. With minimally invasive surgical techniques represented by laparoscopic surgery developing very rapidly in recent years, laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair has also been widely performed in hospitals experienced in laparoscopic surgery. Compared with open surgery, laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair has the advantage of a smaller incision, less pain for the patient, less chance of infection, and a larger repair area with repair results at least as good as those of open surgery. However, laparoscopic surgery often requires general anesthesia and the use of some special laparoscopic instruments, so the cost of treatment is still significantly higher than open surgery, although this gap is narrowing with the development of technology. The current inguinal hernia surgery is inseparable from the development of repair materials. The emergence of repair materials, also known as patches, was a milestone in the development of hernia surgery and is now the basis for a variety of procedures. With the rapid development of material technology, patches have evolved very rapidly, and the general trend is now toward greater repair coverage, greater affinity with tissue, and greater patient comfort. Currently, patches can be broadly divided into two categories: one is made of non-biological materials, and the patches remain in the body permanently. Another type of patch is the biocompatible patch, which is a new type of patch that has emerged this year. It is a patch made of various biological materials that are compatible with the body and eventually become the body’s own tissue without leaving a foreign body. Although inguinal hernia surgery is not as extensive and long as radical abdominal tumor surgery, it is a surgery that requires a high level of anatomical knowledge and operative skills from the surgeon, especially laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair, which requires excellent laparoscopic surgical skills and long-term training for the surgeon to be proficient.