Cost-effectiveness analysis of renal replacement therapy in Austria

Providing renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease patients is resource intensive. Despite growing financial pressure in health care systems worldwide, cost-effectiveness studies of RRT modalities are scarce.

We developed a Markov model of costs, quality of life and survival to compare three different assignment strategies to chronic RRT in Europe.

Mean annual treatment costs for haemodialysis were €43,600 during the first 12 months, €40,000 between 13 and 24 months and €40,600 beyond 25 months after initiation of treatment. Mean annual treatment costs for peritoneal dialysis were €25,900 during the first 12 months, €15,300 between 13 and 24 months and €20,500 beyond 25 months. Mean annual therapy costs for a kidney transplantation during the first 12 months were €50,900 from a living donor, €51,000 from a deceased donor, €17,200 between 13 and 24 months and €12,900 beyond 25 months after engraftment. Over the next 10 years in Austria with a population of 8 million people, increased assignment to peritoneal dialysis of 20% incident patients saved €26 million with a discount rate of 3% and gained 839 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs); additionally, increasing renal transplants to 10% from live donations saved €38 million discounted and gained 2242 QALYs.

Live donor renal transplantation is cost effective and associated with increase in QALYs. Therefore, preemptive live kidney transplantation should be promoted from a fiscal as well as medical point of view.