Cost-effectiveness of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy for the prevention of perioperative complications

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) and secondarily of laparoscopic PN (LPN) compared to the open procedure.

Model-based cost-effectiveness analysis: The model was structured as decision tree. The model was populated with published data. We measured intraoperative, postoperative complications, and inhospital deaths. We expressed costs in US dollars ($).The reference analysis calculated the mean cost and the mean number of each endpoint over 5000 iterations using a second-order Monte Carlo simulation. We conducted extensive sensitivity analyses.

The mean inhospital costs were $13,186 for RAPN, $10,782 for LPN, and $12,539 for open partial nephrectomy (OPN), respectively. The incremental cost to prevent an inhospital event amounted to $5005 for RAPN compared to OPN. Lower RENAL scores were associated with lower incremental cost per avoided complications. Under assumption of 55 % higher costs in patients with complications, RAPN dominated OPN. LPN dominated OPN. We are aware of the following limitations: First, cost data for patients with and without complications were not available and we assumed the median cost for all cases, i.e., the analysis overestimated the cost associated with RAPN; second, we focused on inhospital estimates and did not apply a societal perspective.

RAPN appears to be a cost-effective mean to avoid inhospital complications; however, these results might not apply to low-volume hospitals or to other health care systems.