Korea’s national health insurance program saw cataract surgery top all major procedures last year, while cesarean sections posted the steepest year‑on‑year growth rate at 10.2 percent.
Most common procedures and costs
The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) released its 2025 Statistical Yearbook of Major Surgeries on Monday, which tracks 35 procedures covered by the national health insurance and medical aid programs. According to the report, 2.152 million major surgeries were performed in 2025, a 4.8 percent increase from 2.054 million in the previous year.
Cataract surgery was the most common of the 35 tracked procedures, with 692,126 cases. It was followed by general spinal surgery with 199,147 cases, cesarean sections with 177,232, hemorrhoid surgery with 151,864, and cholecystectomy with 103,817. By age group, people in their 60s accounted for the largest number of surgical patients at 414,141, followed by those in their 70s (408,932) and those in their 50s (236,946).
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Medical costs for the 35 major procedures rose faster than surgical volume, reaching 10.674 trillion won ($7.7 billion) last year, up 14.7 percent from the previous year. Over the past five years, costs grew at an average annual rate of 6.0 percent.
General spinal surgery generated the highest medical costs at 1.016 trillion won, followed closely by percutaneous coronary intervention, including stent placement, at 1.003 trillion won and cataract surgery at 907.4 billion won.
The average medical cost per procedure was 4.96 million won, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier. Heart surgery was the most expensive at an average of 48.08 million won per procedure, followed by coronary artery bypass grafting at 43.29 million won and stem cell transplantation at 27.32 million won.
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By contrast, the average cost was lowest for hemorrhoid surgery at 1.21 million won, cataract surgery at 1.31 million won, and varicose vein surgery at 1.42 million won.
Cataract surgery was the most common procedure among all age groups aged 50 and older, while tonsillectomy was the most common among children aged 9 and younger, appendectomy among teenagers, and hemorrhoid surgery among those in their 40s.
Hospital trends and data release
The average length of stay for major surgeries was 5.6 days, down 0.7 percent from the previous year. Knee replacement surgery had the longest average stay at 20.1 days, followed by stem cell transplantation at 19.8 days and hip replacement surgery at 18.6 days. Cataract surgery had the shortest stay at 1.1 days, followed by varicose vein surgery at 1.9 days and hemorrhoid surgery at 2.2 days.
