Cost of pelvic organ prolapse surgery in the United States☆
Section snippets
Materials and methods
We estimated the annual direct cost of prolapse operations in the United States by multiplying the number of pelvic organ prolapse operations by the direct medical costs per surgery (unit costs). The 1997 National Hospital Discharge Survey database was used to estimate the annual number of pelvic organ prolapse operations in the United States.3 In brief, the National Hospital Discharge Survey estimates national hospital discharges using a sample of nonfederal, short-stay hospitals nationwide.
Results
In 1997, an estimated 354,962 (95% CI 317,076, 392,356) pelvic organ prolapse operations were performed on 225,964 (95% CI 200,017, 251,911) women in the United States (Table 2). Women had a mean age of 54.6 years (± standard deviation [SD] 15.2), and 31% were over 65 years. The most common procedure performed was hysterectomy (N = 130,731; 58% of total prolapse operations), with vaginal hysterectomy (N = 103,317; 79%) performed more often than abdominal hysterectomy (N = 27,414; 21%) (Table 2)
Discussion
The annual cost of surgery for pelvic organ prolapse in the United States was estimated as $1012 million (95% CI $775, $1251 million), comparable with the annual estimated direct costs of other common specific interventions (operations and hospitalizations) and ongoing disease management for prevalent health problems in women (Table 4). 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Pelvic organ prolapse is a common problem, with a lifetime prevalence of 30–50%.1 Because 2% of women are symptomatic with pelvic organ
References (15)
- et al.
Signs of genital prolapse in a Swedish population of women 20 to 59 years of age and possible related factors
Am J Obstet Gynecol
(1999) - et al.
Direct medical cost of pelvic inflammatory disease and its sequelaeDecreasing, but still substantial
Obstet Gynecol
(2000) - et al.
Operations for stress urinary incontinence in the United States, 1988–1992
Urology
(1996) - et al.
Hysterectomy in the United States, 1988–1990
Obstet Gynecol
(1994) - National hospital discharge survey: Annual summary, 1994. In: Statistics NCFH, ed. Vital and health statistics. Series...
- 1997 Physicians fee and coding guide. In: Healthcare Consultants of America. Augusta, GA: HealthCare Consultants of...
DRG Guidebook
(1996)
Cited by (0)
- ☆
Dr. Subak is a Women’s Reproductive Health Research Scholar supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland (K12 HD01262-02). Dr. Brown is supported by grant 1K08AG00710-01A1 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.