Reduction in medical care cost associated with radiofrequency catheter ablation of accessory pathways

Abstract

The cost of definitive therapy was compared in 25 patients who underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation of accessory pathways in 1990 and 25 patients who underwent surgical ablation of accessory pathways in 1989. In the radiofrequency group, 23 of 25 patients had a single accessory pathway and the remaining 2 patients each had 2 accessory pathways. In the surgical group, 20 patients had a single accessory pathway and 5 patients each had 2 accessory pathways. The success rate was 96% in each group. The mean duration of hospitalization was 3 +/- 1 days in the radiofrequency group and 9 +/- 4 days in the surgical group (p less than 0.0001). All the cost data are expressed in fiscal year 1990/1991 dollar values. The total cost of therapy in the radiofrequency group was $14,919 +/- $6,740 compared with $53,265 +/- $12,755 in the surgical group (p less than 0.0001). The cost of radiofrequency ablation consisted of a hospital charge of $7,753 +/- $3,472 and physician fees of $7,166 +/- $3,439. The hospital charge included charges for use of the electrophysiology laboratory, hospital stay, electrocardiograms, echocardiograms and blood studies. The cost of surgery consisted of a hospital charge of $37,708 +/- $10,179 and physician fees of $15,557 +/- $3,149. The hospital charge in the surgical group included the costs of a baseline electrophysiology study, in-hospital care and a follow-up office visit. In conclusion, radiofrequency catheter ablation of accessory pathways results in a dramatic reduction in the cost of definitive therapy in patients with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Assessing the Direct Costs of Treating Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation in the United States

“…The majority of the economic studies on AF have been conducted in the United States with a hospital or third-party payer perspective using decision modeling to estimate the costs of specific treatments. These studies focused specifically on costs associated with either interventional procedures [3][4][5][6], anticoagulation and stroke prevention [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], or pharmacological treatments [3,[7][8][9][10]12,[14][15][16][17]. Studies examining the "national" cost of AF have been conducted in the UK [18] and France [12], however, the overall cost of treating AF in various healthcare settings has not been examined in the United States.…”

Catheter ablation in children with supraventricular tachycardia mediated by accessory pathways—use of radiofrequency current as a first line of therapy

“…It is also more cost-effective than surgery. 27 Pathways on either side of the heart can be ablated with comparable efficacy and procedures are usually completed within a couple of hours. Multiple pathways can be detected and ablated in sequence during a single session.…”

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY: Radiofrequency catheter ablation of supraventricular arrhythmias

“…In one US study, the cost of surgery in patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was estimated to be $53 000, compared with $15 000 for catheter ablation 19. Another study, which compared the cost of medical management before catheter ablation with the cost of the procedure in patients with AVNRT, found total costs of $7600 and $16 000, respectively 20.…”