title: Chronic pain of spinal origin: the costs of intervention.
abstract: The cost of chronic benign spinal pain is large and growing. The costs of interventional treatment for spinal pain were at a minimum of $13 billion (U.S. dollars) in 1990, and the costs are growing at least 7% per year. Medical treatment of chronic pain costs $9000 to $19,000 per person per year. The costs of interventional therapy is calculated. Methods of evaluating differential treatments in terms of costs are described. Cost-minimization versus cost-effectiveness approaches are described. Spinal cord stimulation and intraspinal drug infusion systems are alternatives that can be justified on a cost basis. Cost minimization analysis suggests that epidural injections under fluoroscopy may not be justified by the current literature.
authors.affiliation: North Georgia Pain Clinic, Canton, Georgia 30114, USA. NGPCDHS@aol.com
authors.forename: Barry N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Straus
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007260:Infusion Pumps / Q000191:economics; D007268:Injections, Epidural / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D009294:Narcotics / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010146:Pain / Q000191:economics* / Q000209:etiology; D059408:Pain Management; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics