By retrospective analysis of the medical records from 1978-1985, the rates of incarceration, postoperative complications and lethality were determined with particular consideration of elective and emergency operations. The proportion of over 60 year old patients with inguinal hernia was 37.3%. The rate of incarceration in these patients (9.8%) was more than five times as high as in patients under 60 years old (1.8%); with increasing age, it rose from 3% to 36%. The Bassini technique predominated in the surgical treatment of the hernia. The rate of postoperative complications was 7.5%, wound infections (3.35%) and hematomas (3.07%) being the most frequent. Four patients died postoperatively, mostly of pulmonary complications; this corresponds to a lethality of 1.1% as compared to this corresponds to a lethality of 1.1% as compared to 0% in patients under 60 years old. Emergency operations in incarcerated hernia display a lethality (5.71%) which is more than nine times as high as in elective operations (0.62%). The indication for surgery is hence to be established rather extensively in the elderly, since the danger of incarceration rises.