Advances in surgical technology enable surgeons to perform many operations as outpatient procedures

Nearly 58 percent of the surgeries performed in hospitals were done as outpatient procedures, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In outpatient surgery, also called ambulatory or same-day surgery, patients normally require hospital care for less than 24 hours. These operations are increasingly being used because advances in surgical technology and anesthesia enable surgeons to perform many operations formally limited to inpatient care.

The federal agency's analysis of data available from 28 states found that in 2007:

•Charges for outpatient procedures were seven times lower than for inpatient ones. The average hospital charge for an outpatient procedure was $6,100 in 2007, compared with $39,900 for an inpatient procedure,
•Outpatient surgery charges for hospital totaled $55.6 billion compared with $259 billion for inpatient surgeries.
•Colonoscopies and resulting biopsies were the most frequently performed outpatient procedure (18 percent of all ambulatory procedures), followed by upper gastrointestinal endoscopies and related biopsies (11 percent), lens and cataract procedures (5.5 percent), and diagnostic cardiac catheterization (4 percent).