Background: Atrial septal defect (ASD) comprise 7-10% of the congenital heart diseases in adults. For decades surgical repair has been the treatment of choice with excellent survival in long term follow up. However, like every cardiac surgery, there are complications related to cardiopulmonary bypass, residual scars and mental agony. Less invasive methods such as percutaneous transcatheter device closure have been developed. Aim: To compare surgical repair and device closure methods for management of ASD in terms of efficacy, intraoperative, post-operative complications and length of hospital stay. Materials and Methods: The present study was done in a tertiary health centre in northern India and comprised of 80 patients with a proven isolated ASD who had undergone surgical repair (n=50) and device closure (n=30). They were reviewed and analysed for comparison among the two methods. Results: The successful closure rate was 100% in the surgical group and 93.3% in device closure. There was a significant difference in operative time between the surgical group and the device groups. The length of stay in the intensive care unit and postoperatively in the hospital was shorter in the device group than in the surgical group. In terms of complications, arrhythmia was seen in 16% of surgical patients and 20% device group. Wound infection/ groin hematoma was in 12% patients of surgical and in 13.3% patients of device. Conclusion: It can be summarised that surgical closure of ASD is comparable to transcatheter device closure with some limitations in either group. Procedural success is more in the surgical group with no chance of device migration and embolisation which is a fatal complication of device closure. However, the surgical group has its limitations in terms of post-operative pain and hospital stay.