BACKGROUND: The recovery of spontaneous ventilation is delayed in elderly patients in whom muscle relaxants has been administered for general anesthesia. We evaluated the appropriateness of microscopic cataract surgery without using muscle relaxants in elderly patients. METHODS: Forty two ASA physical status I and II patients for cataract surgery were randomly assigned to two groups. Glycopyrrolate 0.2 mg, fentanyl 2 mcg/kg and propofol 2 mg/kg were administered intravenously followed by vecuronium 1 mg/kg iv in group I and 10% lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg spray into oropharynx in group II. Laryngeal mask (LMA) was inserted for airway management and anesthesia was maintained by only propofol infusion in both groups. Whether the patient moved during the surgery, whether ephedrine was administered and the propofol infusion rate were recorded. RESULTS: Six patients of group I and 1 patient of group II were moved during surgery. Only in group II, 7 patients received intravenously ephedrine administration. Mean infusion rate of propofol was 0.114 mg/kg/min in group I and 0.159 mg/kg/min in group II. CONCLUSION: In general anesthesia for microscopic cataract surgery, the combination of fentanyl 2 mcg/kg, propofol 2 mg/kg and infusion, 10% lidocaine spray and laryngeal mask without muscle relaxants is a good alternate method of keeping airway.