This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) [Supplementary Material] Letters to the Editor: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Letters to the Editor are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bozic, K. J. Articles by Kahn, J. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bozic, K. J. Articles by Kahn, J. G. Related Collections Adult Hip Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Use of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Evaluate New Technologies in Orthopaedics

The Case of Alternative Bearing Surfaces in Total Hip Arthroplasty

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, 500 Parnassus, MU 320W, San Francisco, CA 94143-0728. E-mail address for K.J. Bozic: bozick{at}orthosurg.ucsf.edu
² Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement, Baylor Health Care System, 8080 North Central Expressway, Suite 500, LB 81, Dallas, TX 75206
³ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, YAW-3700, Boston, MA 02114
⁴ Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, Box 0936, San Francisco, CA 94143

Investigation performed at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California

A commentary is available with the electronic versions of this article, on our web site (www.jbjs.org) and on our quarterly CD-ROM (call our subscription department, at 781-449-9780, to order the CD-ROM).

In support of their research for or preparation of this manuscript, one or more of the authors received grants or outside funding from an Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation Health Services Research Fellowship grant. None of the authors received payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. No commercial entity paid or directed, or agreed to pay or direct, any benefits to any research fund, foundation, educational institution, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which the authors are affiliated or associated.

Methods: A decision-analysis model was constructed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of the use of alternative bearings for patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty. Model inputs, including costs, clinical outcome probabilities, and health utility values, were derived from a review of the literature. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of patient age at the time of surgery, implant costs, and reductions in revision rates on the cost-effectiveness of alternate bearing surfaces.

Results: In a population of fifty-year-old patients, use of an alternative bearing with an incremental cost of $2000 would be cost-saving over the individual's lifetime if it were associated with at least a 19% reduction in the twenty-year implant failure rate when compared with the failure rate for a conventional bearing. In a population of patients over the age of sixty-three years, the same implant would be associated with higher lifetime costs than would a conventional bearing, regardless of the presumed reduction in the revision rate. Conversely, an alternative bearing that adds only $500 to the cost of a conventional total hip arthroplasty could be cost-saving in a population of patients over the age of sixty-five years, even if it were associated with only a modest reduction in the revision rate. In a population of patients over the age of seventy-five years, no alternative bearing would be associated with lifetime cost-savings, regardless of the cost or the presumed reduction in the revision rate.

Conclusions: The cost-effectiveness of alternative bearings is highly dependent on the age of the patient at the time of surgery, the cost of the implant, and the associated reduction in the probability of revision relative to that associated with conventional bearings. Our findings provide a quantitative rationale for requiring greater evidence of effectiveness in reducing the probability of implant failure when more costly alternative bearings are being considered, particularly for older patients.

Level of Evidence: Decision analysis, Level I. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Facebook    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. J. Bozic, S. Kurtz, E. Lau, K. Ong, V. Chiu, T. P. Vail, H. E. Rubash, and D. J. Berry The Epidemiology of Bearing Surface Usage in Total Hip Arthroplasty in the United States J. Bone Joint Surg. Am., July 1, 2009; 91(7): 1614 - 1620. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. A. Brauer and K. J. Bozic Using Observational Data for Decision Analysis and Economic Analysis J. Bone Joint Surg. Am., May 1, 2009; 91(Supplement_3): 73 - 79. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press (TM) assists in the publication of JBJS Online.
Copyright © 2006 by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. Online ISSN: 1535-1386.
The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery®, JBJS®, JB&JS®, and eJBJS® are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.