Cost-effectiveness analysis for trigeminal neuralgia: Cyberknife vs microvascular decompression.
OBJECTIVE
We present the preliminary results of a cost-effectiveness analysis of cyberknife radiosurgery (CKR) versus microvascular decompression (MVD) for patients with medically unresponsive trigeminal neuralgia.


METHODS
Direct healthcare costs from hospital's perspective attributable to CKR and MVD were collected. Pain level caused by trigeminal neuralgia was measured through the Barrow Neurological Institute pain intensity scoring criteria, at admission and after an average of 6 months follow-up.


RESULTS
20 patients for both arms were enrolled, for a total of 40 patients. The two procedures resulted equally effective at 6 month follow-up, with different resources consumption: CKR reducing hospital costs by an average of 34% per patient. The robustness of these results was confirmed in appropriate sensitivity analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
CKR resulted to be a cost-saving alternative compared with the surgical intervention.
Tarricone
Rosanna
R
Economic Evaluation Area, CERGAS Centre for Research on Healthcare Management-Bocconi University Milan, Italy.
Aguzzi
Giovanni
G
Musi
Francesco
F
Fariselli
Laura
L
Casasco
Andrea
A