Cost and cost-effectiveness of cardiac surgery in elderly patients

Sandro Gelsomino*, Roberto Lorusso, Ugolino Livi, Gianluca Masullo, Fabiana Luca, Jos Maessen, Gian Franco Gensini

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Objective: Cost-effectiveness of heart surgery for elderly patients is still poorly defined. We evaluated outcome, quality of life (QoL), cost, and cost-effectiveness of octogenarians undergoing cardiac surgery. Methods: One thousand six hundred forty octogenarians undergoing various cardiac surgical procedures were prospectively studied between January 1998 and January 2009 and compared with similar patients aged 70 to 79 years. Several questionnaires were used to assess QoL. Six hundred age-and sex-matched healthy octogenarians and three hundred forty patients older than 80 years with medically treated valvular or coronary artery disease were healthy and unoperated control groups, respectively. In-hospital costs were obtained from the hospital's financial accounting department and cost-effectiveness was estimated and expressed as cost/QoL-adjusted life year (QALY) and cost-effectiveness ratio. Results: Significant improvements occurred in elderly patients in Role Physical (P
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1062-1073
JournalJournal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Volume142
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2011

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