The Comparative Medical Costs of Atherothrombotic Disease in European Countries

Abstract

There are differences in the overall costs and cost breakdown in the clinical management patterns of MI and IS in Europe. These differences seem to arise as a result of local treatment pattern specificities as well as the availability of specific and well-adapted structures for patients' rehabilitation. Further studies are necessary to fully explain these differences. The assessment of the total medical costs of managing an atherothrombotic patient over a 2-year period (MI, IS, established PAD) has to take into account the risk of ischaemic events in different vascular areas (MI, IS or major leg ischaemia).

Determinants of Costs and the Length of Stay in Acute Coronary Syndromes: A Real Life Analysis of More Than 10 000 Patients

“…First, we estimate the average cost of hospital treatment for ACS to be about 12.101 Euro. These results appear to be in line with the findings of other investigations [6,7,20,21]. Levy et al described an amount of 12.393 Euro for the cost of treating a myocardial infarction in the Swiss population.…”

“…Levy et al described an amount of 12.393 Euro for the cost of treating a myocardial infarction in the Swiss population. Their estimation, however, was based on a smaller sample size [7]. Matsui and colleagues found the same duration of stay in the intensive care unit (two days) in the late nineties, but a longer hospitalization on the general ward in Switzerland (12 days).…”

“…Only a few studies have compared the medical costs of ACS from a European perspective, and involve only a small non-representative number of Swiss data [1,6,7].…”

A review of the cost of cardiovascular disease

“…Nine studies (12,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42) reported costs associated with CAD overall or specifically for myocardial infarction (MI), acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and angina. These studies are summarized in Table 5 and are discussed in more detail below.…”

“…Acute costs of MI and one-year follow-up also represented the largest proportion of the costs of MI in Europe when a decision tree model was used to estimate the two-year cost of MI in eight European countries (38). ACS: In a retrospective analysis of a managed care database (36), hospitalization and drug costs represented 72% and 7% of the twoyear medical costs associated with new-onset ACS patients, respectively.…”