Care AbroadProcedures (58)
The operations people cross borders for, what each one involves, and what it costs where.
Bone, joint and spine (7)
ACL reconstruction, ACLR, knee ligament reconstruction
The torn cruciate ligament is replaced with a tendon graft threaded through tunnels drilled in the femur and the tibia and fixed at both ends.
4 published prices
total disc replacement, TDR, disc arthroplasty
The worn disc is removed and replaced with a metal-and-polymer implant that keeps the two vertebrae moving, instead of a cage and screws that lock them together.
3 published prices
keyhole knee surgery, arthroscopic partial meniscectomy, meniscus surgery
A camera and instruments go into the knee through two or three small portals. Torn meniscus is trimmed or stitched, loose bodies are removed, roughened cartilage is smoothed, the joint is washed out.
4 published prices
arthrodesis of the spine, ACDF, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion
Two vertebrae are joined into one bone. The disc between them is removed, a cage or a block of graft is packed into the gap, and screws and rods or a plate hold the segment still while it knits.
4 published prices
total hip arthroplasty, THA, THR
The worn ball and socket of the hip are cut out and replaced: a stem driven into the femur carrying a metal or ceramic head, and a cup fixed into the pelvis with a bearing inside it.
5 published prices
total knee arthroplasty, TKA, knee arthroplasty
The worn surfaces of the knee are cut away and replaced with metal and plastic: a femoral component on the thigh bone, a tibial tray on the shin, a polyethylene bearing between them, and often a patellar button behind…
4 published prices
total shoulder arthroplasty, TSA, reverse total shoulder replacement
The arthritic or destroyed shoulder joint is replaced with a stemmed or stemless humeral component and a glenoid component.
3 published prices
Brain and nerve (2)
CI, cochlear implantation, auditory prosthesis
An electronic device that bypasses the damaged inner ear and stimulates the hearing nerve directly.
3 published prices
Leksell Gamma Knife, stereotactic radiosurgery, SRS
A high dose of radiation delivered to a target inside the skull from many directions at once, so that the beams meet at the lesion and each individual path through healthy brain carries little dose.
Cancer (2)
chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, CAR-T, tisagenlecleucel
A patient's own T cells are collected from the blood, genetically modified in a factory to carry a receptor for a marker on their cancer, grown up, frozen, shipped back and infused after a short course of chemotherapy…
5 published prices
proton therapy, PBT, proton beam radiotherapy
Radiotherapy delivered with protons instead of X-rays. A proton slows as it travels through tissue and releases most of its energy at the point where it stops, so a beam aimed to stop inside a tumour deposits its dose…
Cosmetic (6)
tummy tuck, lipectomy, mini abdominoplasty
Skin and fat are cut away from the lower abdomen through a long transverse incision above the pubis, the separated abdominal muscles are usually stitched back together, the navel is brought out through a new opening and…
4 published prices
augmentation mammoplasty, boob job, breast enlargement
A silicone shell filled with cohesive gel or saline is placed behind the breast tissue or behind the chest muscle, through a cut in the fold under the breast, around the areola or in the armpit.
4 published prices
rhytidectomy, SMAS facelift, deep plane facelift
Incisions are made in front of and behind the ear and into the hairline, the skin is lifted, the fibrous layer beneath it is repositioned or tightened, excess skin is trimmed and the wound closed along the lines where…
4 published prices
BBL, Brazilian butt lift, buttock augmentation with fat grafting
Fat is taken by liposuction from the abdomen, flanks or back, processed, and injected into the buttocks to add volume and change shape.
3 published prices
lipoplasty, suction-assisted lipectomy, lipo
Fat is broken up and aspirated through small cannulas passed under the skin, usually after the area has been flooded with dilute local anaesthetic and adrenaline.
4 published prices
nose job, nasal reshaping, septorhinoplasty
Bone and cartilage of the nose are cut, filed, repositioned or added to, through the nostrils or through a small bridging incision at the base of the nose.
4 published prices
Eyes (3)
phacoemulsification, phaco, lens extraction with intraocular lens
The clouded natural lens is broken up by ultrasound and removed through a small wound, and an artificial lens is folded into the empty capsule.
3 published prices
ICL, implantable contact lens, phakic intraocular lens
A soft lens is folded through a small corneal wound and placed behind the iris, in front of the eye's own lens, which stays. No tissue is removed and the operation can in principle be reversed.
3 published prices
laser in situ keratomileusis, laser eye surgery, femto-LASIK
A thin flap is cut in the surface of the cornea, the tissue beneath is reshaped with an excimer laser to change where the eye focuses, and the flap is laid back without stitches.
4 published prices
Fertility (7)
oocyte donation, donor egg IVF, DIVF
A donor is screened and stimulated, her eggs are collected, and they are fertilised with the recipient's partner's sperm or with donor sperm; the resulting embryo goes into the recipient, whose own cycle is timed to…
7 published prices
oocyte cryopreservation, oocyte vitrification, social freezing
The first half of an IVF cycle, stopped after the eggs are collected.
4 published prices
IVF, in vitro fertilization, assisted reproductive technology
Drugs stimulate the ovaries to ripen several eggs at once; the eggs are collected through the vaginal wall under sedation or general anaesthetic in about half an hour; the eggs are mixed with sperm in a laboratory; and…
7 published prices
ICSI, sperm injection, IVF-ICSI
An embryologist holds one egg with a suction pipette, picks up one sperm in a glass needle a few micrometres across, pushes the needle through the egg's outer coat and membrane and releases the sperm inside.
4 published prices
PGT, PGT-A, PGT-M
A few cells are taken from the outer layer of a five-day-old embryo, the embryo is frozen, and the cells are sequenced.
4 published prices
donor sperm, donor insemination, DI
Screened, frozen sperm from a man who is not the patient's partner, thawed and either placed in the uterus around ovulation — donor insemination, a few minutes in a clinic room with no anaesthetic — or used to fertilise…
4 published prices
gestational surrogacy, gestational carrier, traditional surrogacy
A woman carries a pregnancy for someone else. In the usual form an embryo is created by IVF from the intended parents' or donors' gametes and transferred to her; she has no genetic link to the child.
2 published prices
Gender-affirming (3)
gender-affirming phalloplasty, RFF phalloplasty, ALT phalloplasty
A penis is built from a flap of the patient's own skin, fat and nerve — most often the forearm, otherwise the thigh, groin or back — transferred to the pubis and connected to blood vessels and nerves there.
3 published prices
chest masculinisation, chest reconstruction, subcutaneous mastectomy
Breast tissue is removed and the chest is reshaped to a male contour.
3 published prices
gender-affirming vaginoplasty, genital reconstruction, sex reassignment surgery
The testes are removed, the penile and scrotal tissue is dismantled, and a vaginal canal is made in the space between the bladder and the rectum, lined with penile skin turned inside out, with a scrotal skin graft, with…
4 published prices
Hair (2)
DHI, implanter pen technique, Choi implanter technique
Follicular units are harvested as in follicular unit extraction, then loaded one at a time into a hollow implanter pen that both makes the recipient channel and delivers the graft in a single movement, rather than the…
2 published prices
FUE, follicular unit excision, sapphire FUE
Follicular units are cut out of the back and sides of the scalp one at a time with a punch under a millimetre across, sorted under magnification, and placed into slits made in the bald area.
4 published prices
Heart (3)
PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention, balloon angioplasty
A catheter is threaded from the wrist or the groin to the heart, dye shows where a coronary artery is narrowed, a balloon opens it and a metal mesh tube is left behind to hold it open.
4 published prices
CABG, heart bypass, coronary bypass
A length of vein from the leg or artery from the chest wall is sewn around a blocked coronary artery so blood reaches the muscle beyond it. Several grafts in one operation is usual.
4 published prices
valve replacement, aortic valve replacement, mitral valve replacement
A diseased valve — most often the aortic or the mitral — is cut out and a mechanical or tissue prosthesis is sewn in its place, on cardiopulmonary bypass through an opened chest, or through a smaller incision with an…
4 published prices
Rehabilitation (3)
holiday dialysis, vacation dialysis, guest dialysis
A person on maintenance haemodialysis books sessions at a unit somewhere else and goes there.
5 published prices
pancakarma, Ayurvedic purification therapy, body purification programme
A residential course of Ayurvedic treatment, prescribed by a physician after consultation and run daily for two to four weeks: oil applications and massage, herbal steam, forehead oil pouring, medicated enemas and…
3 published prices
rehab, inpatient rehabilitation, detox and rehab
A stay of several weeks in a residential centre: medically supervised withdrawal where it is needed, then individual and group therapy, structured days, and an aftercare plan.
2 published prices
Screening (1)
executive check-up, health screening package, comprehensive medical check-up
A fixed bundle of tests run in half a day: history and examination, bloods, urine and stool, an electrocardiogram, a chest X-ray, an abdominal ultrasound, with imaging, endoscopy and cardiac stress testing added in the…
3 published prices
Sold without approval (1)
stem cell therapy, regenerative medicine, stromal vascular fraction
A cell preparation is injected, infused or implanted as a treatment for a condition it has not been approved to treat.
2 published prices
Teeth (6)
All-on-four, full-arch fixed bridge on four implants, fixed hybrid denture
Four implants are placed in one jaw, the back pair angled forward to avoid the sinus or the nerve, and a fixed bridge of ten to fourteen teeth is screwed onto them — often a temporary one within about a day, with the…
3 published prices
cap, porcelain fused to metal crown, zirconia crown
A tooth is reduced to a stump, an impression or scan is taken, a laboratory makes a cover in metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, lithium disilicate or zirconia, and it is cemented or screwed on.
5 published prices
implant fixture, endosseous implant, single tooth implant
A titanium or ceramic screw is placed in the jaw where a tooth was. Bone grows onto it over months; then an abutment is screwed into it and a crown is cemented or screwed onto that.
4 published prices
porcelain veneer, composite veneer, laminate veneer
A thin facing is bonded to the front of a tooth, usually after some enamel is removed.
4 published prices
full mouth rehabilitation, full mouth reconstruction, smile makeover
Rebuilding both jaws: extractions where teeth cannot be kept, implants or bridges where they cannot be replaced otherwise, crowns on what remains, and often a raising of the bite.
4 published prices
endodontic treatment, root filling, RCT
The dead or infected pulp is removed, the canals inside the root are cleaned, shaped and filled, and the tooth is sealed. The NHS describes it as treatment for infection at the centre of a tooth.
5 published prices
Transplant (3)
haematopoietic stem cell transplant, HSCT, stem cell transplant
The blood-forming system is destroyed by chemotherapy, with or without radiation, and replaced with stem cells — the patient's own, harvested and stored beforehand, or another person's.
2 published prices
renal transplant, renal transplantation, kidney graft
A kidney from a living or a deceased donor is placed in the recipient's lower abdomen and plumbed into the iliac vessels and the bladder; the recipient's own kidneys are usually left in place.
1 published price
orthotopic liver transplantation, OLT, living-donor liver transplant
A diseased liver is removed and replaced, either with a whole organ from a deceased donor or with a lobe cut from a living one.
3 published prices
Weight (3)
intragastric balloon, Orbera, Allurion
A soft balloon is placed in the stomach and filled, so the stomach holds less and fullness comes sooner. It is a temporary device, not an operation: nothing is cut, stapled or removed, and it comes out again.
3 published prices
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, RYGB, mini gastric bypass
The stomach is divided with staples to leave a small pouch at the top, and that pouch is joined to the lower part of the small intestine, so food passes most of the stomach and the first stretch of bowel without meeting…
2 published prices
gastric sleeve, vertical sleeve gastrectomy, VSG
Around 80% of the stomach is removed to leave a much smaller, sleeve-shaped tube, under general anaesthetic and normally through keyhole incisions. The NHS puts the operation at one to three hours.
6 published prices
end-of-life (1)
assisted suicide, accompanied suicide, voluntary assisted dying
A person who wishes to end their life is prescribed a lethal drug by a doctor and takes it themselves, with an organisation present.
3 published prices
general-surgery (2)
cholecystectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, lap chole
The gallbladder is removed through four small incisions with a camera, or through a larger cut where the keyhole route fails.
4 published prices
herniorrhaphy, hernioplasty, inguinal hernia repair
A defect in the abdominal wall is closed and usually reinforced with a synthetic mesh, through an open incision or through keyhole ports. The commonest general-surgical operation in most countries.
4 published prices
gynaecological (1)
total laparoscopic hysterectomy, abdominal hysterectomy, vaginal hysterectomy
The uterus is removed — through the abdomen, through the vagina, or through keyhole incisions with a camera, which is the route the packages read for this record price.
3 published prices
reproductive (1)
termination of pregnancy, induced abortion, medical abortion
A pregnancy is ended, either with drugs or with a procedure. The drug route is two medicines taken a day or two apart, most of it completed at home, and it is used in early pregnancy.
3 published prices
urological (1)
radical prostatectomy, robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy, RARP
For cancer, the whole prostate and the seminal vesicles are removed and the bladder rejoined to the urethra — increasingly through a robotic console, with four nights on the Bangkok package read for this record.
4 published prices