The authors report their experience with 463 tension free hernioplasty procedures for inguinal and femoral hernias. The surgical technique included the insertion of both a polypropylene plug and a polypropylene mesh, and was carried out mostly in local anesthesia (84.2%) using bupivacaine 0.25% for ileoinguinal and ileohypogastric blockage and mepivacaine 0.5% for local infiltration. There was no major intraoperative complication; local postoperative complications were rare (10%) and easily managed; postoperative pain was frequently observed (66%), though mild and transient; resumption of working activity occurred within a month in 96.6% of cases; there were only 3 post-operative recurrences (respectively, at 1, 6 and 12 months). The authors conclude that the tension free hernioplasty is a simple, rapid, low-cost and effective technique, easily performed under local anesthesia.