Surgical treatment of recurrent inguinal hernia is controversial. This is a prospective study of 50 patients who had laparoscopic total extraperitoneal repair (n = 25) or Lichtenstein repair (n = 25) for recurrent inguinal hernia. The two groups of patients were comparable in age, sex and type of hernia. Post-operatively, a seroma or a wound haematoma developed in 12 patients after Lichtenstein repair and in 4 patients after laparoscopic repair (p < 0.05). On average, analgesia was taken for 6.4 days after Lichtenstein repair compared with 3.4 days after laparoscopic repair (p < 0.05). In our unit, laparoscopic repair was associated with fewer complications and a significantly shorter duration of post-operative analgesia than Lichtenstein repair for recurrent inguinal hernia.