Around 15 million operations a year

Around 15 million operations a year

12/10/2011

In Germany's clinics was operated on about 14.9 million times last year. According to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, the number of medical interventions on patients has risen by four percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Surgery and therapeutic procedures had risen sharply by 7.7 percent in the previous year.

About 47 million medical treatments and surgeries were performed last year in 2010 in German hospitals. Overall, according to the statisticians, an increase of 5.2 percent compared to 2009 is recorded. An average of 2.7 therapies and surgeries of this kind were therefore spent on hospitalization.

Almost a third of all full-time inpatient care related to operations. Thus, approximately 14.9 million medical interventions were undertaken on patients. With a share of 26.8 percent, non-surgical treatments were performed. Diagnostic measures took third place with 9.4 million examinations. The remainder was divided into imaging diagnostics such as MRI or CT with 8.4 million, complementary measures such as antenatal preparations (1.6 million) and the administration of special medicines such as chemotherapy with 300,000 measures.

Most people were operated on at retirement age. The proportion of pensioners aged 65 years and over was 42.2 percent. Most interventions include surgery on the intestine. In second place were hip joint operations as well as the endoscopic operations on the bile ducts. In the 45- to 64-year-olds group, the articular cartilage and menisci were the most commonly operated. This is followed by women-specific interventions such as uterine removal or, in men, inguinal hernia surgery.

Women younger in age (15-44) were most frequently operated on delivery (e.g., caesarean section). Men in this age group were primarily operated on the nasal conchae and articular cartilage or menisci. In children under 14 years of age, cutting the eardrum to open the tympanic cavity and removing the tonsils are among the most common operations.

For some time, health insurance companies and some medical professionals have been criticizing the continuous increase in in-patient interventions. Critics criticize the too fast handle to the scalpel, although other non-surgical treatments have not been sufficiently sounded. Thus, numerous interventions are carried out due to back pain (herniated disc), although alternative therapies often appear more appropriate. Background of the increase is in the opinion of the health insurance companies the increasing cost pressure of the clinics. The more operations are performed, the higher the budgets of the hospitals. (Sb)

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Picture: Martin Büdenbender