After more than 20 years of pain after a severe skiing accident tore up her knee, Barbara had a total knee replacement this past week. The surgery was done at Clinica Abreu in Santo Domingo and the surgeon was Dr. Richard Domino, for my money the best orthopedic surgeon in the DR.
Since there was some interest on the board when I posted the cost of Barbara's hip replacement last year, I thought I would post the knee replacement figures.
1. Hospital charges (Clinica Abreu for period October 4-10: RD$99,595.36. This figure would be about RD$2,000 per day less if we could have gotten a semi-private room, however, due to the severe virus and dengue, all the semi-private rooms were occupied.
2. The prosthesis (state of the art): RD$84,375.
3. Charges for surgeon, assistant, and anesthetist: RD$190,000
This totals RD$373,970.36 or US$11,247 using an exchange rate of 33.25 to 1.
This is quite a bit more than the cost of her hip replacement, but my impression is that this was a more difficult operation. She was on the table longer and in recovery longer than with the hip.
They gave her a spinal so she was awake during the operation. She says there was an awful lot of pulling, pushing and pounding during the operation.
Since there was some interest on the board when I posted the cost of Barbara's hip replacement last year, I thought I would post the knee replacement figures.
1. Hospital charges (Clinica Abreu for period October 4-10: RD$99,595.36. This figure would be about RD$2,000 per day less if we could have gotten a semi-private room, however, due to the severe virus and dengue, all the semi-private rooms were occupied.
2. The prosthesis (state of the art): RD$84,375.
3. Charges for surgeon, assistant, and anesthetist: RD$190,000
This totals RD$373,970.36 or US$11,247 using an exchange rate of 33.25 to 1.
This is quite a bit more than the cost of her hip replacement, but my impression is that this was a more difficult operation. She was on the table longer and in recovery longer than with the hip.
They gave her a spinal so she was awake during the operation. She says there was an awful lot of pulling, pushing and pounding during the operation.