Objective To explore the clinical efficacy of using 3D patches to repair inguinal hernia in laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair (TAPP).Methods A retrospective study was conducted on 102 patients with inguinal hernia. All the patients were treated with laparoscopic TAPP. The patients were divided into two groups based on the different patch methods used after the surgery. The patients who used ordinary patches were in the ordinary patch group (n = 50), and the patients who used 3D patches were in the 3D patch group (n = 52). The surgery-related conditions, postoperative pain, postoperative complications and recurrence of the two groups of patients were compared.Results The 3D patch group had shorter surgery time, first exhaust time, got out of bed mobility time, less hospital stay and intraoperative bleeding volume than those in the ordinary patch group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). On the 1, 3, and 5 d after surgery, the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores of patients in the 3D patch group were lower than those in the ordinary patch group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The total complications rate in the 3D patch group was 5.77%, which was significantly lower than the 20.00% in the ordinary patch group, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the postoperative recurrence rate between the two groups of patients (P > 0.05).Conclusion For patients with inguinal hernia, administering 3D hernia patches during laparoscopic TAPP can reduce intraoperative bleeding volume, alleviate postoperative pain, and lower the complications rate such as postoperative urinary retention, scrotal edema, and seroma. It is worthy of clinical promotion and application.