Minerva medica
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Multicenter Study
Activity-based costing analysis of the analgesic treatments used in postoperative pain management in Italy.
The aim of this analysis is to evaluate the costs of 72-hour postoperative pain treatment in patients undergoing major abdominal, orthopedic and thoracic procedures in nine different Italian hospitals, defined as the cumulative cost of drugs, consumable materials and time required for anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses to administer each analgesic technique. ⋯ The analysis successfully collected information about costs of 72-hour postoperative pain treatment in patients undergoing major abdominal, orthopedic and thoracic procedures in all the nine different Italian hospitals. The interview showed high heterogeneity in the treatment of moderate to severe pain after major abdominal, orthopedic and thoracic surgeries among responding anesthesiologists, with 15 different analgesic modalities reported. The majority of the analgesic techniques considered in the analysis is not recommended by any guideline and their application in real life can be one of the reasons for the high incidence of uncontrolled pain, which is still reported in the postoperative period. Health care costs have become more and more important, although the choice of the best analgesic treatment should be a compromise between efficacy and economic considerations.