The authors present their twenty-year experience with coccygectomy as described by Gardner in a group of 60 patients. The mean age was 36 years, the youngest patient was 11 years old and the oldest 63 years. The group was formed mostly by women (95 %). The authors evaluated in particular the subjective response to the operation, i. e. mitigation of pain, the etiology, persistence of complaints, period and type of ambulatory treatment and the postoperative course (i. e. healing of the surgical wound, type of after-treatment and convalescence period. In the described group of patients 53 reported complete regression of complaints, in seven patients the pain persisted in the sense that the scar was tender or the distal end of the sacrum was tender on pressure. Complaints which developed soon after operation, such as painful or impossible defecation, pain when sitting etc., receded relatively rapidly and in the majority disappeared spontaneously and completely. Their possible persistence can be successfully treated by injections of a local anaesthetic or in combination with corticosteroids, relief during burdening and selection of a suitable sitting position. Coccygectomy according to Gardner's method, if a careful technique is used, resolves the complaints of the majority of patients. Key words: coccygectomy according to Gardner, coccygodynia.