title: The cost-effectiveness of routine follow-up after primary total hip arthroplasty.
abstract: Routine postsurgery assessment of primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) is recommended in many countries. Whether the benefits of this activity are justified by the costs is not known. We used a decision-analytic Markov model to compare the costs and health outcomes of 3 different follow-up strategies after primary THA. If there is no routine follow-up of patients for 7 years after primary THA, there would be cost savings between AU$6.5 and $11.9 million and gains of between 1.8 and 8.8 quality-adjusted life years. Policy makers should investigate less resource-intensive alternatives to common routine postsurgical assessment.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Katharina Maria Dorothea
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bolz
authors.forename: Ross W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Whitehouse
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Graves
mesh_terms: D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D001315:Australia; D017046:Cost Savings; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years