Cost-effectiveness analysis of different methods of treatment of tubal ectopic pregnancy in the south of Iran

Abstract

Background: Ectopic pregnancy is one of the most important causes of maternal mortality and infertility that may impose many costs on patients. Today, Surgery and pharmaceutical treatments are the common methods of treating the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different methods of treating tubal ectopic pregnancy in the south of Iran.Methods: This study was an economic evaluation which analysed and compared the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of three treatment methods, including single-dose methotrexate, double-dose methotrexate, and surgery in patients with tubal ectopic pregnancy. In this study, a decision tree model was used. The outcomes included in the model were the percentage of successful treatment and the average utility score of each treatment method. The study was conducted from the social perspective and a one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis was performed to measure the effects of uncertainty. The analysis of the collected data was performed using Excel and TreeAge software.Results: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the surgery versus single-dose methotrexate was positive and equal to $5812 PPP; since it was less than the threshold, surgery was considered as a cost-effective method. The incremental cost-utility ratio also identified surgery as the best option. Moreover, the results of one-way showed the highest sensitivity to the effectiveness of single-dose methotrexate. Scatter plots also revealed that surgery in 82% and 96% of simulations was at the acceptable region compared with a single dose and double-dose methotrexate, respectively and below the threshold. It was identified as a more cost-effective strategy. Furthermore, the acceptability curves showed that in 81.4% of simulations, surgery was the most cost-effective treatment for thresholds less than 21011 PPP dollars.Conclusions: Based on the results of the present study, it is recommended that surgery can be used as the first line of treatment for ectopic. Also, the best drug strategy was single-dose methotrexate. Since these strategies reduce costs and increase treatment success and QALYs compared to double-dose methotrexate.