U.S. Surgical Procedure Volumes

The number of surgical procedures performed in the United States (U.S.) continues to increase; however, the percentage of inpatient hospitalizations is on a downward trend due to patient visits to freestanding clinics and physician’s offices. The latter two settings offer same-day surgery and improved surgical techniques, less invasive surgical procedures, and technological advances to speed a patient to recovery. Treatment advances including new drug therapy also have contributed to fewer and shorter hospital stays.

This report details U.S. surgical procedure volumes including an overview of each procedure, etiology and epidemiological data for the disease/disorder treated by the procedure, and surgical trends. The forecast period covered by this report is for the years 2005 through 2014. The surgical procedures covered by this report include those in the following categories:

• cardiovascular and thoracic;
• cosmetic;
• general;
• gynecologic and obstetric;
• major organ and tissue transplantation;
• miscellaneous;
• neurologic;
• ophthalmic;
• orthopedic and spinal; and,
• urologic.