Common Types of Medical Tourism Treatments Available

Medical travel, also called medical tourism, can provide a wide variety of treatments and surgeries. The procedures offered do include the well-known choices of plastic and bariatric surgeries. However, they also go beyond those options that we hear about most often. Lesser-known medical travel services include everything from cancer treatment to brain surgery, dental work, hip replacements, health spas, and sex change operations. Elective procedures as well as cutting edge services are both available to the travel tourist.

Medical
Necessary medical treatments are increasingly being performed abroad because they can be done faster and cheaper than in one's home country. Cutting edge procedures are often easier to obtain in emerging countries than in first world nations due to ridiculously long wait periods. Top destinations for medical services include India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

Weight Loss Surgeries
Bariatric and lap band surgeries are commonly associated with medical tourism. One reason for this is that patients must often pass certain criteria and undergo counseling in order to have bariatric surgery done in the United States. If a patient gets turned down or wants to bypass this process, they can go to Thailand for low-cost bariatric or lap band surgery. These are both forms of weight loss surgery. Bariatric is the more invasive and life-altering version, whereas lap band surgery can be reversed.

Ophthalmology
As more people are seeking to have LASIK surgery done on their eyes, low-cost options are becoming more popular. LASIK eye surgery repairs near-sightedness with a laser. It can be found around the world for less than $1000, whereas it is closer to $4000 in the United States.

Orthopedics
Hip replacement, hip resurfacing, and knee surgery are commonly performed in the medical travel industry. The vast financial savings of having these surgeries done abroad and long wait periods of up to a year in some countries encourage people to choose medical tourism.