This study was conducted for evaluating and comparing levels of patient discomfort  during phacoemulsification  under topical and peribulbar anesthesia and comparative assessment of intra–operative complications. It is a hospital based comparative study on patients who underwent phacoemulsification from OCTOBER’2016 to DECEMBER’2016. Patients were randomly distributed to peribulbar or topical anesthesia. Parameters like age, surgery duration, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and intra–operative pain were compared in two groups. 45 patients underwent phacoemulsification under topical anesthesia and 49 patients underwent phacoemulsification under peribulbar anesthesia. No statistical differences were found in surgery duration, intra–operative complications, pain, blood pressure or Oxygen saturation . 4/49  in peribulbar group required additional topical anesthesia. This was statistically significant (p=0.04). Anesthesia related complications  seen in peribulbar group. There is no significant difference in topical and peribulbar anesthesia with respect to intra–operative pain level and intra–operative complications. Also topical anesthesia is minimally invasive.