Economic analysis of reprocessing single-use medical devices: a systematic literature review

Although an increasing number of medical devices are labeled "for single use only," cleaning and reuse of single-use medical devices continues, because of the economic incentive. We conducted a survey of the economic literature to obtain the current evidence available and to assess the costs and benefits of reusing single-use medical devices.

A comprehensive literature search was carried out to identify articles that compared single use and reuse of single-use medical devices and that met specific scientific criteria, including evaluation of economic outcomes. Each selected article was independently reviewed by 2 reviewers to extract cost and clinical outcome data and to assess the quality of the study.

Nine published articles met the selection criteria. The savings were about 49% of the direct cost. These savings would be offset by adverse-event costs, but none were detected. However, quality of the studies was generally poor.

There is little available evidence of quality in the published literature to assess the practice of reuse of single-use medical devices. Moreover, data on clinical outcomes are missing and, where available, cannot be attributed specifically to the reuse of single-use medical devices.