The most expensive medical procedures in the USA is a list that will show you the most expensive and most complex procedures you can receive nationwide. A certain time comes in everyone’s life when they just have to visit the hospital for something more than a routine check up. While some people never need to get under the knife for any particular reason, there are some less fortunate of us who have gone or will have to go through surgery. Surgery, in its own way, is nothing to joke about, no matter how minor. Even so, we are all lucky to live in a time when medical procedures have advanced enough to have a very favorable success ratio, even in the more complex of them.
Today’s well-trained doctors and fascinating technology allow us to have a pretty good chance standing against serious illness or injury which requires surgery. Medicine today is even able to replace organs and soon enough – body parts with more ease than ever, being able to also assist the process of recovery in a vast variety of ways. While that is an amazing feat of our development, it is often closely tied to being able to afford it.
Whenever serious surgery is required, people who can afford it often choose to contact worldwide renowned specialists and arrange for a spot in some of the best hospitals in the world. Even though the average US medical facilities did not make it a part of our list of the 6 countries with the best hospitals, people in the States spend more than eight hundred and seventy billion dollars on healthcare collectively per year. A lot of the money goes towards the huge number of surgeries performed annually.
Given the controversy around the state of healthcare in the United States, it would be interesting to find out which surgeries are among the most expensive medical procedures in the USA.
10. Gallbladder removal – $122 000+
The Gallbladder, an organ which plays a fairly important role in digestion, often causes problems for people of age.Being one of the more common procedures performed on people, gallbladder removal is done in case of a severe dysfunction or the buildup of painful deposits called gallbladder stones.
9. Destruction of Lesion of the Retina – $150 000+
In layman’s terms – fixing damage to the retina (an important part of your eyes) will run you over a hundred fifty thousand. In this case, the price is higher because of this being a very high risk procedure which requires tremendous precision and skill to perform.
8. Thoracentesis – $200 000+
A procedure which aims to extract built-up fluid from between the heart,lungs and chest wall via a long, thick needle, thoracentesis will cost you upwards of two hundred thousand if not covered by insurance.
7. Tracheostomy – $210 000+
In severe cases of throat, mouth or any damage which affects the very uppermost part of the airways, a surgeon will have to create an artificial hole for air to get in through, usually on the front side of your neck. The majority of patients to receive that treatment also need a lot of stay and monitoring
6. Kidney Transplant – $260 000+
Being both high-risk and associated with long stay, the increasingly demanded kidney transplant is one of the most expensive procedures you might need at some point in your life, as close to 1 in 10 American adults have considerable kidney problems nowadays.
5. Open Heart Surgery – $320 000+
Open heart surgery is the most common of the 10 most expensive medical procedures with heart disease being the number one cause of death in the US. While it is not always associated with patients who are burdened by prolonged illness, even emergency OHS is often followed by complications which add to the cost.
4. Bone Marrow Transplant – $630 000+
A bone marrow transplant using cells from your own body will cost you half that price, some patients can not have one due to various circumstances. An allogenic (from a donor) transplant is the more expensive type, involving a lot more time and effort.
3. Lung Transplant – $790 000+
Being a very complicated, high risk and lower success rate procedure used as a last resort for patients who have irreversible lung damage, a full lung transplant will cost well over seventy-nine hundred thousand dollars.
2. Heart Transplant – $990 000+
A heart transplant – basically replacing the muscle which is responsible for a human being’s life, is the second costliest procedure you can have. The main reasons behind that, aside from the complexity of the procedure, are finding a donor and recovery treatment.
And, the most expensive medical procedure in the USA is: Intestine transplant – $1 200 000+
Certain conditions can leave patients with intestines that are way too damaged to function properly. In such cases of irreversible damage, a patient needs to have the most expensive medical procedure in the USA – an intestine transplant.
