title: Economic evaluation of Vacuum Assisted Closure® Therapy for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers in France.
abstract: The objective of the study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of Vacuum Assisted Closure® (V.A.C.®) Therapy compared with advanced wound care (AWC) for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) in France. A cost-effectiveness model intended to reflect the management of DFUs was updated for the French setting. The Markov model follows the progression of 1000 hypothetical patients over a 1-year period. The model was populated with French-specific data, obtained from published sources and clinical experts. The analysis evaluated costs and health outcomes, in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), wounds healed and amputations, from the perspective of the payer. The patients treated with V.A.C.® Therapy experienced more QALYs (0.787 versus 0.784) and improved healing rates (50.2% versus 48.5%) at a lower total cost of care (€24,881 versus €28,855 per patient per year) when compared with AWC. Sensitivity analyses conducted around key model parameters indicated that the results were affected by hospital resource use and costs. DFU treatment using V.A.C.® Therapy in France was associated with lower costs, additional QALYs, more healed ulcers and fewer amputations than treatment with AWC. V.A.C.® Therapy was therefore found to be the dominant treatment option.
authors.affiliation: York Trials Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Heslington, York, UK. sjw138@york.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Véronique L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Forest-Bendien
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halimi
authors.forename: Georges Ha
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Van
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Trueman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017719:Diabetic Foot / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018803:Models, Economic; D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome