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Studies and Analyses
Costs of Treating Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms Revealed
A new study from the Netherlands on preventive treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms shows higher costs for endovascular coiling than for treatment by surgical clipping, mostly because of the more expensive coils. The study is being published in the journal “Cerebrovascular Diseases”.
To determine in detail the costs of the two treatments, the University Medical Centre Utrecht assessed patients who were treated for an unruptured aneurysm between 1997 and 2003. Patients treated by endovascular coiling in this period were matched with patients treated by surgical clipping according to the year of treatment, age and gender. All pre-admission costs of diagnostic procedures, all costs of treatment, and costs during follow-up, including standard angiographic control examinations at 6 and 18 months after coiling, were compared. Costs were calculated as the product of the used resources and the costs of these resources.
The mean price for clipping was EUR 8,865.42 and that for coiling EUR 10,370.29. The difference was mainly determined by the higher material costs of coiling (EUR 5,300) compared with clipping (EUR 690). Costs of clipping were mainly determined by the need for intensive care facilities (1.2 days after clipping and 0 days after coiling) and the length of hospital stay (10.5 days after clipping and 3.4 days after coiling). After bootstrapping the data, the costs of coiling were on average EUR 1,553 higher than those of clipping.
