the heart, the aorta is still as big as a garden hose, and if the wall of the
great vessel weakens and balloons out, a patient can be on the precipice of
death. Aneurysms can also occur in other vessels as they divide into the
lower limbs. While only 2,000 such repairs occur every year,^51 there are
about 30,000 abdominal aortic aneurysms repaired each year, averaging
the values of an estimated 26,257 cases in a survey of surgeons in 2013^52
and a computed number of 32,464 procedures among Medicare recipients
in 2006.^53 Combined, there were 32,000 aneurysm repairs in 2014.
The combined financial impact of stent placement, bypass grafting,
heart valve, and pacemaker procedures was $23.4 billion dollars, in large
part due to the high per case costs (e.g., $52,000 for heart valve surgery,
$41,900 for bypass surgery, and $35,000 for pacemaker insertion).
CARDIOVASCULAR SUMMARYIn 2014, the total number of procedures per subsection were:
Coronary stents: 1,000,000
Pacemakers: 272,000
Coronary artery bypass graft: 201,600
Valve operations: 143,500
Aneurysm repair: 32,000Combined, there were about 1,650,000 cases in 2014 involving the
cardiovascular system.
Therefore, for musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems, there were
7,737,000 operations in 2014.
NEUROSURGERYA ventricular-peritoneal (VP) shunt is used to treat hydrocephalus, a
condition of excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulation. A VP shunt is a thin
piece of plastic tubing that is positioned deep in the brain and is tunneled