Laparoscopic surgery

On February 17, 2025, the Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) working group, which develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclatures for private payers in England, published Bulletins 200 and 096 with changes to be implemented no later than March 10, 2025. Thirty-five new procedure codes related to cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nephrology, peripheral vascular, and general surgery areas and ten new diagnostic codes concerning in-vitro diagnostics, endoscopy, and pulmonology were introduced.

On January 1, 2025, the annual update of the Finnish NordDRG system came into force. A total of 54 new DRGs were introduced concerning cardiovascular, diagnostic imaging, endoscopy, gastrointestinal, ENT, neurology and neurosurgery, men’s health, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, peripheral vascular, pulmonary and airways, spine, and surgical procedures fields.

The Danish Health Data Authority quarterly updates the Health Care Classification System (SKS). The updated version was published in mid-June 2024 to come into force on July 1, 2024. Six new surgical procedure codes, twenty new medical procedure codes, and nine new codes for diagnostic investigations were introduced concerning multiple areas, including diagnostic imaging, gastrointestinal, gynecology, orthopedics, and surgical procedures.

In mid-September 2022, the Danish Health Data Agency (Sundhedsdatastyrelsen) published an update of the Health Care Classification System (Sundheds-væsenets Klassifikations System, SKS). The most significant changes include: four new diagnosis codes, 14 procedure codes, and 46 additional codes (Tillægskoder) were added. The newly added procedure codes mainly concern the surgical procedures field, in addition to some other technology groups.

In July 2022, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) awarded 12 projects under the 2023 Open Round of the Efficiency Research program with a budget intended for funding research into clinical and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical care.

In mid-March 2022, the Danish Health Data Agency (Sundhedsstyrelsen) published an update of the Health Care Classification System (Sundheds-væsenets Klassifikations System, SKS). The most significant changes include: ten new diagnosis codes, two procedure codes, and 143 additional codes (Tillægskoder) were added. The newly added procedure codes concern gastrointestinal and peripheral vascular procedures.

In mid-June 2021, the Danish Health Data Agency (Sundhedsstyrelsen) has published the update of the Health Care Classification System (Sundheds-væsenets Klassifikations System, SKS). The most significant changes include: seven new diagnosis codes and 17 procedure codes were added. The newly added procedure codes concern mainly gastrointestinal and dermatological areas.

On March 15, 2019, the Swiss Medical Board published two appraisal reports: “Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery versus open surgery for radical prostatectomy” and “Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery versus conventional laparoscopic surgery for simple or radical hysterectomy.”

For 19 of the surgical procedures in which laparoscopic techniques are more common, such approach is used in less than 4 out of 10 cases. Differences in levels of use emerged between Northern, Central, and Southern Regions in which the laparoscopic procedures were used less often.