Cost-effectiveness of advanced therapy with moist environment dressings compared to traditional therapy in the treatment of Stage I and II pressure ulcers

Abstract

Objective: To demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the moist environment dressings treatment over the Traditional Cure (TC), in hospitalized patients, with Pressure Ulcers (UPP) categories I and II. Methods: This is a comparative, randomized, open-label, longitudinal study, comprising 60 patients, divided into two groups, treated and followed for four weeks. The sample size was calculated based upon the meta-analysis by Heyer. We built a decision tree to compare the cost-effectiveness of each therapy. Data were collected directly from patients' case report forms and costs extracted from hospital records. Additionally, we performed sensitivity and incremental cost-effectiveness analyses. Results: The analysis showed a dominance of advanced therapy over traditional therapy (€ 223.00/0.84 vs. € 298.00/0.51), as it was more cost-effective at the end of the study. Hospitalization was shorter in the advanced therapy and healing was achieved in fewer days than the traditional therapy. Conclusions: Advanced therapy with healing products in a humid environment is more cost-effective than traditional therapy when applied to hospitalized patients with category I and II pressure ulcers.