The most commonly preformed procedure at US hospitals is the Caesarean section, according to new data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project at AHRQ. Hospitals preformed 1.2 million of the procedures last year, a figure which some analysts called "surprising." According to the agency, the most commonly performed in-patient procedures are: 1) Upper Gastrointestinal endoscopy (712,000); 2) Catheterization to diagnose heart problems (707,000); 3) Respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation (617,000); and 4) Angioplasty (676,000).
- see the AHRQ website for more on the data