Pinch grafting in hospital and primary care: a cost analysis

The cost of treating venous leg ulcers with pinch grafting was evaluated for 58 consecutive patients: 29 in hospital care and 29 in primary care. The mean age was 76.8 and 74.3 years and the mean ulcer size 15.1 and 13.5 cm2, respectively. The operation technique, pinch grafting, was the same for all patients but primary care patients were not immobilised postoperatively. Healing rate within 12 weeks was the same for patients in hospital care and primary care (31%). Treatment costs for one week pre-operatively and three weeks postoperatively amounted to 5109 Pounds per patient in hospital care and 870 Pounds per patient in primary care (p < 0.001), and the costs for one week pre-operatively and 12 weeks postoperatively were 6738 Pounds and 1806 Pounds, respectively (p < 0.001). Costs for patients whose ulcers healed within 12 weeks were 5552 Pounds for those receiving hospital care and 1676 Pounds for those receiving primary care (p < 0.001). Pinch grafting in primary care was shown to cost 3.3 to 5.9 times less, with the same healing outcome, than pinch grafting in hospital care.