Aesthetic and dental surgical procedures show greater than average growth

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, standouts in surgical procedures in terms of growth over the next five years are going to be dental implant, facial injectable, optical coherence tomography (OCT) catheter, spinal nonfusion implant, and percutaneous heart valve procedures in North America.

“The aesthetic and dental areas have consistently shown greater than average growth”

Procedure volumes in cardiovascular surgery, orthopedics, endoscopy, urology, and gynecology will grow at between four and five percent annually from 2010 to 2015, only slightly more than the three percent growth rate in the over-50 population. Most of the growth results from predictable population aging. But a few procedural segments will expand significantly.

"The aesthetic and dental areas have consistently shown greater than average growth," says April Chan, Publications Manager at MRG. "Dental implants will show a growth of nine percent and facial injectables 12 percent, both driven by consumer demand for anti-aging treatments. Otherwise, a few recently developed surgical technologies, particularly percutaneous heart valves, OCT catheters, and spinal nonfusion implants, will grow significantly."

Percutaneous heart valves, launching in the United States in 2012, will grow 200 percent. These devices treat patients ineligible for heart valve surgery and also meet clinical demand for less-invasive heart valve disease treatment.

OCT catheters, first approved in the United States in 2010, will grow 58 percent. This technology permits the detailed 3D imaging of heart vessels for diagnosis of coronary artery disease, at much higher resolutions than ultrasound.

Spinal nonfusion implants will grow 20 percent, due to positive clinical results on these motion-preserving devices.

MRG's North American Surgical Procedure Volumes 2011 includes procedure numbers from 28 of Millennium Research Group's 2010 publications. Therapeutic areas are covered in this report are cardiovascular procedures, dental procedures, diagnostic imaging procedures, facial injectable procedures, gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures, nonvascular interventional radiology procedures, orthopedic procedures, soft tissue repairs, and urology & gynecology procedures.