Healthcare Insights
Top 20 anesthesia procedures and services
The practice of anesthesia facilitates many routine procedures in modern medicine, enabling doctors to perform surgeries and other procedures without causing severe or intolerable pain to the patient.
Anesthesia refers to any medically induced state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation, including total loss of consciousness (general anesthesia), inhibition of anxiety and memory formation (sedation), or the reduction of nerve impulse transmission from a specific body part (regional/local anesthesia).
Below, we’ve compiled a list of the most common anesthesia procedures and services ranked by relative volume using 2021 medical claims data.
| Rank | HCPCS/CPT code | HCPCS/CPT description | % Total procedures | % Total charges | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99152 | Moderate sedation, patient >5 years | 8.60% | 1.30% | Explore |
| 2 | 731 | Anesthesia, upper GI tract endoscopy | 7.30% | 6.30% | Explore |
| 3 | 142 | Anesthesia, eye lens surgery | 6.10% | 3.60% | Explore |
| 4 | 812 | Anesthesia, lower intestine screening colonoscopy | 6.10% | 4.80% | Explore |
| 5 | 811 | Anesthesia, lower intestine endoscopy | 5.80% | 4.70% | Explore |
| 6 | 813 | Anesthesia, lower abdomen screening | 3.70% | 3.80% | Explore |
| 7 | 99100 | Special anesthesia service | 3.40% | 0.40% | Explore |
| 8 | 99153 | Moderate sedation, additional 15 minutes | 3.40% | 0.60% | Explore |
| 9 | 1967 | Anesthesia, vaginal delivery | 3.10% | 6.30% | Explore |
| 10 | 840 | Anesthesia, lower abdomen surgery | 3.00% | 4.60% | Explore |
| 11 | 790 | Anesthesia, upper abdomen surgery | 2.70% | 4.40% | Explore |
| 12 | 400 | Anesthesia, thorax surgery | 1.90% | 1.60% | Explore |
| 13 | 1480 | Anesthesia, lower leg bone surgery | 1.70% | 1.80% | Explore |
| 14 | 170 | Anesthesia, oral procedure | 1.70% | 1.50% | Explore |
| 15 | 1810 | Anesthesia, lower arm surgery | 1.50% | 1.10% | Explore |
| 16 | 1400 | Anesthesia, knee joint surgery | 1.40% | 1.50% | Explore |
| 17 | 1402 | Anesthesia, knee arthroplasty | 1.40% | 2.40% | Explore |
| 18 | 1961 | Anesthesia, cesarean delivery | 1.40% | 2.00% | Explore |
| 19 | 1922 | Anesthesia, CAT or MRI scan | 1.30% | 1.60% | Explore |
| 20 | 99140 | Emergency anesthesia | 1.30% | 0.30% | Explore |
Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare ClaimsMx product and sourced from proprietary research and multiple medical claims clearinghouses. Data accurate as of October 2022.
Which anesthesia procedures were performed most in 2021?
Moderate sedation for a patient over five years old was the most-performed anesthesia procedure in 2021, accounting for 8.6% of all anesthesia procedure claims that year and 1.3% of total charges. This form of anesthesia renders patients in a state of reduced consciousness without being unconscious or asleep and can be used prior to many routine procedures.
This particular CPT code is used to log the first 15 minutes from the administration of the sedation agent; subsequent time is logged with code 99153—ranked in 7th place on our list.
Second on our list is anesthesia for endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which accounts for 7.3% of total anesthesia procedures and 6.3% of charges in 2021. These procedures involve the insertion of an endoscope down to the upper duodenum—the part of the small intestines just below the stomach. Gastroenterological conditions are listed as the primary diagnosis for approximately 66.4 million hospital visits each year, and endoscopies enable providers to accurately diagnose and treat these conditions.
Taking third is anesthesia for eye lens surgery, representing 6.1% of anesthesia procedures that year. In the case of common corrective surgeries like LASIK, this generally involves the use of topical anesthetic eye drops.
How does anesthesia work?
Different categories of anesthesia work by different mechanisms. General anesthesia works by suppressing the central nervous system via injected or inhaled drugs, which produces total unconsciousness and lack of sensation. Similarly, sedation also suppresses the central nervous system, just to a lesser degree.
Regional and local anesthesia inhibit the transmission of nerve impulses to prevent feeling in certain body parts. These drugs can target the peripheral nerves of a tooth or limb, for instance, or be used to suppress activity within entire nerve regions, such as in the case of an epidural.
Interestingly, while anesthesia reduces consciousness, it doesn’t seem to inhibit dreaming. About one in five patients report dreaming during general anesthesia.
Learn more
Healthcare Insights capture a small slice of the massive amount of healthcare commercial intelligence available on the Definitive Healthcare platform. Want to see the full picture? Start a free trial today and get access to the latest healthcare commercial intelligence on hospitals, physicians, diagnoses, technologies, and more.
You might also be interested in...
