PSU14 HEALTHCARE BURDEN OF SURGICAL SITE INFECTIONS FOLLOWING CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT SURGERY

Abstract

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is an established procedure and post-CABG surgical site infections (SSIs) have decreased since use of antibiotic prophylaxis became standardized. SSIs, though, still complicate the recovery of many patients placing additional burden of healthcare services. Here, the cost and resource use burden of these SSIs is estimated for the EU. A published Markov-model representing CABG care was adapted to focus purely on inpatient costs. Input parameters were: annual CABG procedures, SSI rates, ratio SSIs to SWIs, length of stay, hospital time to treat SWIs, and the cost per day of intensive care unit (ICU) and general ward. The model was populated with data from national SSI surveillance programmes and costs from peer-reviewed publications and the World Health Organization. Where data from EU countries was not available, proxy values based on data from other European. The model estimated the per country and EU annual economic burden of CABG-related SSIs. Full data were identified for Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom (72.8% of the EU28 population). CABG rates ranged from 17.86 to 64.75 procedures per 100,000 population, while 2.4% to 10.4% of CABG patients were subsequently affected by SSIs. For these 10 countries, the annual cost of CABG-related SSIs was almost €97 million. This cost included an additional 15,172 ICU days, 79,522 general ward days, and 3,392 readmissions. Post-CABG SSIs accounted for an average additional cost per patient of €480 in Germany, €418 in France, and €404 in the UK. Extrapolating up to the EU28, the cost burden was estimated to be over €115 million per year. The cost of post-CABG SSIs is a substantial burden in the EU and there are economic grounds for considering new methods for reducing the incidence of postoperative SSIs.