About appendectomy cost

Appendix is a very mysterious part of our intestine having no purpose in our body whatsoever. Nevertheless, our appendix can easily get inflamed, especially in male bodies, leading to severe pain and a necessity of a surgical removal. Surely, appendicitis can be regulated by medication which can deal with the symptoms, but appendectomy, being the surgical removal of the appendix is necessary for a successful treatment of this problem.

The Surgery

If the surgery is delayed after the pain occurs and the inflammation takes place, there is a great chance that this prolongation will lead to appendix rupture, spreading the infection into the blood stream, being potentially life-threatening. There are two major appendectomy procedures, one being the open surgery while the other being laparoscopic surgery.

Open procedure is done by creating a large incision in the abdominal area in order to get rid of the infected appendix. This kind of a procedure is quite invasive and can lead to bleeding, infections and other complications of this type in some cases.

Laparoscopic surgery is carried out by a special device called laparoscope after several small incisions are created in the abdominal area. Then, the device is inserted into one of the incisions while other are used for holding the abdominal tissue. In order to enable the surgeon enough room, the medical staff inflates the abdomen with carbon dioxide and the appendix is removed.

The Price

This surgery, even though it is known to be one of the most common surgical procedures in the world, is not cheap. Since appendectomy is a moderately complicated type of surgery, it requires the patient to stay in the hospital for about 2 to 5 days. After being released from the hospital, the patient is advised to stay calm and to rest, getting back to work or regular lifestyle after 4 to 6 weeks. All these factors contribute to the height of the final medical bill adding post-operative and pre-operative checkups and tests to the list.

Yet, the price can vary, depending on numerous factors. Citizens of Canada for example, can get appendectomy done for free. On the other hand, people in the US need to spend anywhere between $23,000 and $35,000, provided that they do not have health insurance. Basically, $12,000 goes on the hospital charges, $4,000 for the doctors and the rest is spent on tests and analysis. If you add traveling expenses, the standards of the hospital and numerous additional services to the price, you can freely include additional $10,000 into the total.

Due to these costly facts, numerous individuals from the US and Europe are traveling to India in order to get cheap but high quality appendectomy.