Background: Large-scale utilization of drug-eluting stents (DES) presents significant economic limitations, related to the current high cost of the device and the absence of adequate reimbursement from the health care system. The aim of the study was to evaluate the cost of single-vessel and multivessel drug-eluting stenting and to compare it with the DRG funding level.
Methods: Between November 2003 and May 2004, we studied 100 consecutive patients who underwent a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with DES, 50 single-vessel and 50 multivessel procedures, in order to evaluate the real procedure costs of DES. The cost fields calculated in the analysis included: costs for the materials and drugs used in each procedure, costs related to medical personnel and staff, costs for equipment depreciations, and costs for total hospitalization based on the length of stay in the coronary care unit and/or in the cardiology ward.
Results: With regard to the 50 patients with single-vessel disease, 63 lesions were treated with 58 DES. With regard to the 50 patients with multivessel disease, the average number of treated vessels was 2.3 and of lesions 2.8. An average of 2.7 DES per patient was implanted; glycoprotein Ilb/IIIa inhibitors were used in 70% of cases. The multivessel procedure necessitated an average of 1.62 guide catheters, 1.86 guides, 1.36 balloons, and 475 +/- 124 ml of contrast medium; the average endoscopy time was 16 +/- 8 min while the total procedural time was 106 +/- 37 min. The procedural success rate was 100% for both groups. The post-PCI hospital stay was 2.1 +/- 1.7 days for patients with single-vessel disease and 2.8 +/- 2.6 days for patients with multivessel disease; the total was 4.7 +/- 2.8 and 6 +/- 3.2 days respectively. The mean total cost of hospital stay for PCI and DES was 6390 +/- 2274 Euro for single-vessel PCI and 9828 +/- 3026 Euro for multivessel PCI, split as follows: materials 2915 +/- 963 Euro and 5294 +/- 1177 Euro, procedural costs 404 +/- 55 and 446 +/- 99 Euro, costs of hospital stay 3070 +/- 2024 Euro and 4089 +/- 2517 Euro respectively for single-vessel and multivessel PCI.
Conclusions: The mean total cost of a single-vessel PCI with DES falls within the DRG 112 reimbursement level for coronary angioplasty of 7006 Euro, while that of multivessel PCI with multiple DES is about 40% above the same reimbursement level. Interestingly, the multivessel PCI cost with multiple DES does fall within the reimbursement amount related to DRG 107 for bypass surgery procedures (14,322 Euro).