The impact of frailty on the economic evaluation of geriatric surgery: hospital costs and opportunity costs based on meta-analysis.

We used a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze the difference in costs between surgery for frail and non-frail elderly patients. The opportunity cost of frailty in geriatric surgery is estimated using the results. Two literature reviews were carried out between 2000 and 2019: (1) studies comparing total hospital costs of frail and non-frail surgical patients; (2) studies evaluating the length of hospital stay and cost for surgical geriatric patients.

Opportunity cost of the dermatologist's consulting time in the economic evaluation of teledermatology.

Introduction This study, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, has sought to demonstrate that the opportunity cost is a value to take into account in studies of economic cost in telemedicine, illustrated through the time of the dermatologist's consultation in teledermatology and traditional consultation. Methods Economic evaluation studies have been identified that compare teledermatology and traditional dermatological consultation during the period 1998-2015. We carried out a meta-analysis considering the work cost and the dermatologist's consultation time, analysing their differences.

A program of telementoring in laparoscopic bariatric surgery.

Background: This study proposes a system for teaching and surgical support with the benefits of online Information and Communications Technology (ITC) -based telementoring for laparoscopic bariatric surgery (LBS).

Material And Methods: A system of telementoring was established between a university center and two community hospitals. Telementoring was performed via internet protocol using a direct point-to-point connection, ASDL 1.

Opportunity cost in the economic evaluation of da Vinci robotic assisted surgery.

Objective: This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the opportunity cost in using da Vinci robotic surgery, assisted by a comprehensive review of the literature to determine the differences in the total cost of surgery and operative time in traditional laparoscopic surgery and da Vinci robotic surgery.

Methodology: We identified the studies comparing the use of traditional laparoscopic surgery with robotics during the period 2002-2012 in the electronic economic evaluation databases, and another electronic search was performed for publications by Spanish hospitals in the same period to calculate the opportunity cost. A meta-analysis of response variables considering the total cost of the intervention and surgical time was completed using the items selected in the first revision, and their differences were analyzed.