Objectives To describe national trends for inpatient procedures for pelvic organ prolapse from 1979–2006. Study Design The National Hospital Discharge Survey was analyzed for patient and hospital demographics and ICD-9-CM diagnostic and procedures codes from 1979 to 2006. Age-adjusted rates (AARs) per 1000 women were calculated using the 1990 U.S. Census data. Results There was a significantly decreasing trend in the AARs for inpatient prolapse procedures, from 2.93 to 1.52 per 1000 women from 1979–2006. AARs for hysterectomy decreased from 8.39 to 4.55 per 100 women from 1979–2006. Over the study period, AARs remained at about the 1979 level among the women ≥52 years old (2.73 to 2.86, p=0.075). In women <52 years old, AARs declined to less than one-third of the 1979 rate (3.03 to 0.84, p<0.001). Conclusions AARs for inpatient procedures for prolapse in the U.S. remained stable for women ≥52 years old from 1979–2006, rates declined by two-thirds for women <52.

Objectives To estimate trends over time in inpatient obstetric and gynecologic surgical procedures, and to estimate commonly performed obstetric and gynecologicsurgical procedures across a woman's lifespan. Methods Data were collected for procedures in adult women, 1979-2006 using the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), a federal discharge dataset of U.S. inpatient hospitals, including patient and hospital demographics and International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) procedure codes for adult women, 1979-2006. Age-adjusted rates per 1,000 women were created using 1990 U.S. Census data. Procedural trends over time were assessed. Results Over 137 million obstetric and gynecologic procedures were performed, comprising 26.5% of surgical procedures for adult women. Sixty-four percent were only obstetric and 29% were only gynecologic, with 7% of women undergoing both obstetric and gynecologic procedures during the same hospitalization. Obstetric and gynecologic procedures decreased from approximately 5,351,000 in 1979, to 4,949,000 in 2006. Both operative vaginal delivery and episiotomy rates fell, while spontaneous vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery increased. All gynecologic procedure rates fell during the study period, with the exception of incontinence procedures, which increased. Common procedures by age group differed across a woman's lifetime. Conclusion Inpatient obstetric and gynecologic procedures rates fell from 1979 to 2006. Inpatient obstetric and gynecologic procedure rates are decreasing over time, but still comprise a large proportion of inpatient surgical procedures for U.S. women.