An audit of routine cataract surgery in our hospital was carried out by examining records of 340 adult patients who underwent such surgery during October 1990. The category of intended accommodation (day case or inpatient), operative details, post-operative course and management were recorded, along with the outcome measures of visual acuity (unaided and corrected) and refractive error (spherical equivalent and cylinder). The costs of treatment, including post-operative management, were calculated for each patient. The results indicate that day case surgery under local anaesthesia was the most cost-effective method of cataract surgery, with no detrimental effect on clinical outcome.