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Updated: Apr 18, 2026
Author Spotlight: A Non-Intubated Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery with Multimodal Analgesia and Sevoflurane Inhalation Anesthesia
Published on: May 26, 2023
Cost and effectiveness of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a
Hsin-Yuan Fang1, Fei-Yuan Hsiao1, Hsu-Chih Huang1
11 Department of Chest Surgery, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan ; 2 School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan ; 3 Graduate Institute of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Medicine, 4 School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan ; 5 Department of Pharmacy, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan ; 6 Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Critical Care, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan ; 7 Department of Health Services Administration, College of Health Care, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan ; 8 Department of Radiation Oncology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Background:
Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is a minimally invasive alternative to conventional surgery (CS). We aimed to estimate the short-term cost-effectiveness of VATS vs. CS for clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC-c-stage-I) patients from the payer's perspective (National Health Insurance).
Methods:
We identified NSCLC-c-stage-I patients diagnosed and received surgery within 2007-2009 through a comprehensive population-based database containing cancer and death registries, and reimbursement data. The duration of interest was 1 year. We included potential confounding covariables through literature searching and our own experience, and used a propensity score to construct a 1:1 population for adjustment.
Results:
Our study population constituted 966 patients. The mean hospital stay [days, standard deviation (SD)] were 14.4 [7] and 16.1 (7.7) for VATS and CS respectively (P=0.002). The mean cost (2013 USD) and survival (year) was $22,316 vs. $21,976 and 0.98 vs. 0.974 for VATS vs. CS. The probability for VATS to be cost-effective (i.e., positive net benefit) was 0.49 & 0.56 at willingness-to-pay (WTP) 50,000 & 100,000 USD/life-year, respectively.
Conclusions:
We provide the first empirical evidence that when compared to CS, VATS was potentially cost-effective in the short term (1 year) within the common WTP levels in Taiwan.
