[Severe gastrointestinal complications potentially associated with the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents: hospital treatment costs for the National Health System of our country].
BACKGROUND
Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) produce severe gastrointestinal (G-I) complications in 1-4% of cases which need to be treated into the hospital. The aim of this study has been to assess the hospital cost secondary to treat these complications in our National Health Service (NHS).


METHODS
In the first phase a cross-sectional study was performed in order to know the number of patients who were hospitalized due to a severe G-I complication during 1998 in two tertiary hospital in our country. It was reviewed their clinical charts to know whether they had taken any NSAIDs. In those positive cases all resources used during the hospitalization were collected.


RESULTS
In both hospitals studied 38.1% of hospitalized patients for a severe G-I complication had taken any NSAIDs during the same day or previous days. The cost/patient was of 389,831 pesetas. During 1998 in the whole NHS there were 54,623 hospitalizations owing to the same reason. Assuming that 38.1% of them had also taken any NSAIDs, 20,811 patients would have suffered a severe G-I complication potentially due to the intake of NSAIDs. Extrapolating the cost/patient obtained in both hospitals to the global number of patients hospitalized into the NHS, the cost of treating all severe G-I complications related to the consumption of NSAIDs during 1998 was of 8,112 millions pesetas.


CONCLUSIONS
Bearing in mind the elevated prevalence of osteo-articular pathology in our country and the high consumption of NSAIDs for its treatment, the coming of new therapeutic options with a better safety profile would mean an important resources' saving for our NHS.
Vargas
E
E
Servicio de Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Clínico-Madrid.
Cabrera
L
L
Morón
A
A
García
M
M
Soto
J
J
Rejas
J
J
D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000191:economics*; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain
D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal