Background : The purpose of this study was to assess the perception of patients undergoing cataract surgery under topical anesthesia in an open-space operating hall. The study was set in the Department of Ophthalmology, Cochin Paris Descartes University Hospital, in a newly built open-space operating hall dedicated to ophthalmic surgery. Methods: 250 consecutive patients undergoing cataract surgery by 11 surgeons were included in this prospective study. All the included patients have been operated in an open-space operating hall with 3 surgical areas. Only first-eye standard cataract surgeries performed under topical anesthesia were included. Responses to a face-to-face questionnaire administered by a single interviewer to patients before their discharge on the day of their surgery were analyzed. Results: Fifty-two patients (21%) knew beforehand that their procedure would take place in an open-space operating hall, 118 (47%) realized that they were in such an environment on the occasion of their surgery and 80 (32%) did not notice. Conversations and noises unrelated to their own surgeries were overheard respectively by 15 (6%) and 37 (15%) patients. Of the 250 patients, 237 (95%) did not report any discomfort associated with the fact that their procedure had been performed in an open-space operating hall. Conclusions: Cataract surgery performed in an open-space setting did not seem to affect the patients’ comfort during the procedure. Trial registration : This manuscript has been retrospectively registered and approved in 9 october 2018 by the Ethics Committee of the French Society of Ophthalmology (IRB 00008855 Société Française d’Ophtalmologie IRB#1) because the Committee did not find any challenge against the medical and scientific rules of ethics, as accepted in France.