The cost-effectiveness of routine follow-up after primary total hip arthroplasty.
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.
Bolz
Katharina Maria Dorothea
KM
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Crawford
Ross W
RW
Donnelly
Bill
B
Whitehouse
Sarah L
SL
Graves
Nicholas
N
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