“Last year, the most common surgery received by our citizens was cataract surgery.”
According to the “2023 Major Surgery Statistics Yearbook” released by the National Health Insurance Corporation today (16th), 1.659 million people underwent 1.996 million major surgeries in Korea last year.
Compared to the previous year, 2022, the number of patients decreased by 0.8%, and the number of surgeries decreased by 3.5%.
The most frequent surgery was cataract surgery.
The number of cataract surgeries was 638,000, with 432,000 patients undergoing the procedure.
Following cataract surgery, general spinal surgery had 207,000 cases (195,000 patients) and hemorrhoid surgery had 152,000 cases (150,000 patients).
There were 3,768 surgeries per 100,000 people, with cataract surgeries (1,204 cases) being the most common.
This was followed by Cesarean sections at 555 cases and general spinal surgeries at 390 cases.
The total medical expenses for major surgeries amounted to 8 trillion 4.404 billion KRW, reflecting a 4.4% increase compared to 2022.
Medical expenses were highest for general spinal surgery at 1 trillion 157 billion KRW, followed by knee replacement surgery at 839.7 billion KRW, and cataract surgery at 823.4 billion KRW.
The average medical cost per surgery was 4.23 million KRW, an increase of 8.2% from the previous year.
The surgeries with the highest cost per procedure were heart surgeries at 36.83 million KRW, coronary artery bypass grafting at 35.25 million KRW, and stem cell transplants at 23.23 million KRW.
The surgeries with the lowest costs per procedure included hemorrhoid surgeries at 1.19 million KRW, cataract surgeries at 1.29 million KRW, and varicose vein ligation and removal surgeries at 1.45 million KRW.
When examining the number of surgeries by age group, those in their 60s had the highest number at 390,302, followed by those in their 70s with 361,315, and those in their 50s with 232,521.
For those aged 9 and under, tonsillectomies were common; for those in their teens, appendectomies; in their 20s to 30s, Cesarean sections; in their 40s, hemorrhoid surgeries; and for those in their 50s and older, cataract surgeries were the most frequently performed operations.