Opportunity cost in the economic evaluation of da Vinci robotic assisted surgery.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the opportunity cost in using da Vinci robotic surgery, assisted by a comprehensive review of the literature to determine the differences in the total cost of surgery and operative time in traditional laparoscopic surgery and da Vinci robotic surgery.


METHODS
We identified the studies comparing the use of traditional laparoscopic surgery with robotics during the period 2002-2012 in the electronic economic evaluation databases, and another electronic search was performed for publications by Spanish hospitals in the same period to calculate the opportunity cost. A meta-analysis of response variables considering the total cost of the intervention and surgical time was completed using the items selected in the first revision, and their differences were analyzed. We then calculated the opportunity cost represented by these time differences using the data obtained from the studies in the second review of the literature.


RESULTS
Nine items were selected in the first review and three in the second. Traditional laparoscopic surgery has a lower cost than the da Vinci (p < 0.00001). Robotic surgery takes longer (8.0-65.5 min) than traditional surgery (p < 0.00001), and this difference represents an average opportunity cost for robot use of € 489.98, with a unit cost factor/time which varies according to the pathology dealt with, from € 8.2 to 18.7/min.


CONCLUSIONS
The opportunity cost is a quantity that must be included in the total cost of using a surgical technology within an economic cost analysis in the context of an economic evaluation.
Department of Surgery, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. fernandofuer@gmail.com.
Fernando
F
Fuertes-Guiró
Department of Physical Therapy and Statistics, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Montserrat
M
Girabent-Farrés
Department of Surgery, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Eduardo
E
Viteri-Velasco
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000191:economics*; D017059:Models, Econometric; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000191:economics*
Da Vinci robot; Economic evaluation; Laparoscopic surgery; Opportunity cost; Robotic surgery