• Lindsay A Gil, Lindsey Asti, Huey-Fen Chen, Jacqueline M Saito, Prasanth Pattisapu, Katherine J Deans, Peter C Minneci, and Midwest Pediatric Surgery Consortium.
• Center for Surgical Outcomes Research, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2024 Nov 19.

BackgroundNon-operative management (NOM) with antibiotics alone for pediatric uncomplicated appendicitis is accepted to be safe and effective. However, the relative cost-effectiveness of this approach compared to appendectomy remains unknown. We aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of non-operative versus operative management for pediatric uncomplicated acute appendicitis.Study DesignA trial-based real-world economic evaluation from the healthcare sector perspective was performed using data collected from a multi-institutional non-randomized controlled trial investigating NOM versus surgery. The time horizon was 1 year, with costs in 2023 US dollars. Ratio of costs-to-charges (RCC)-based data for the initial hospitalization, readmissions, and unplanned emergency department visits were extracted from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS). Utility data were derived from patient-reported disability days and health-related quality-of-life scores. Multiple scenarios and one-way deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses accounted for parameter uncertainty. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold was set at $100,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) or disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Primary outcome measures included total and incremental mean costs, QALY, DALY, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs).ResultsOf 1,068 participants, 370 (35%) selected NOM and 698 (65%) selected urgent laparoscopic appendectomy. Operative management cost an average of $9,791/patient and yielded an average of 0.884 QALYs while NOM cost an average of $8,044/patient and yielded an average of 0.895 QALYs. NOM was both less costly and more effective in base case and scenario analyses using disability days and alternate methods of calculating utilities.ConclusionsNOM is cost-effective compared to laparoscopic appendectomy for pediatric uncomplicated appendicitis over 1 year.Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 keywords...

hide…