Immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery: a cost-effective procedure.

Objective: The objective of this project was to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) versus delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery (DSBCS) to determine whether ISBCS represents an appropriate, cost-effective way to rapidly rehabilitate a patient's visual impairment.

Design: A systematic review followed by a primary economic analysis with computer-based econometric modeling.

Participants: Not applicable.

Methods: We constructed a decision analytic model from the perspective of the public third-party payer (i.e., the Ministry of Health) to conduct a CEA of both surgeries, ISBCS and DSBCS. Cost data consisted of the costs of the surgery, intravitreal injections, medications, and drops, all of which were obtained from a comprehensive literature search and from records at St. Joseph's Hospital, London, Ont. The effectiveness was measured by the utility values associated with visual acuity in the better seeing eye.

Results: ISBCS resulted in an incremental effectiveness of 0.08 utility at an incremental cost of $1607. Discounting the quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained by an annual interest rate of 3% resulted in 0.932 QALYs gained. The cost-effectiveness of ISBCS was calculated to be $1431 per QALY gained. A 1-way sensitivity analysis was performed by varying costs, utility values, probabilities, and discounting rates. This analysis varied the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio but did not change the conclusion.

Conclusions: Health economics assessment showed that, compared with DSBCS, ISBCS is a cost-effective procedure. This finding will be highly useful to policy-makers, decision-makers, clinicians, hospital administrators, and payers in making cost-efficient decisions.