• Ghislaine A P G van Mastrigt, John Heijmans, Johan L Severens, Erik J Fransen, Paul Roekaerts, Gemma Voss, and Jos G Maessen.
• Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, Netherlands.
• Crit. Care Med. 2006 Jan 1; 34 (1): 65-75.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the safety and cost-effectiveness of short-stay intensive care (SSIC) treatment for low-risk coronary artery bypass patients.DesignRandomized clinical equivalence trial.SettingUniversity Hospital Maastricht, the Netherlands.PatientsLow-risk coronary artery bypass patients.InterventionsA total of 600 patients were randomly assigned to undergo either SSIC treatment (8 hrs of intensive care treatment) or control treatment (care as usual, overnight intensive care treatment).MeasurementsThe primary outcome measures were intensive care readmissions and total hospital stay. The secondary outcome measures were total hospital costs, quality of life, postoperative morbidity, and mortality. Hospital costs consisted of the cost of hospital admission or admissions and outpatient costs.Main ResultsThe difference in intensive care readmission between the two groups of 1.13% was very small and not significantly different (p = .241; 95% confidence interval, -0.9% to 2.9%). The total hospital stay (p = .807; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to -0.4) and postoperative morbidity were comparable between the groups. The SSIC group's quality of life improved more compared with the control group's quality of life (p = .0238; 95% confidence interval, 0.0012 to 0.0464). The total hospital costs for SSIC were significantly lower (95% confidence interval, -1,581 to -174) compared with those for the control group (4,625 and 5,441, respectively). The estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (cost/delta quality-adjusted life months) thus showed the dominance of SSIC. Bootstrap and sensitivity analyses confirm the robustness of the study findings.ConclusionsCompared with usual care, SSIC is a safe and cost-effective approach. SSIC can be considered as an alternative for conventional postoperative intensive care treatment for low-risk coronary artery bypass graft patients.

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