Korean J Clin Pharm.
2016 Dec;26(4):341-347. 10.0000/kjcp.2016.26.4.341.
Analysis of Medical Use and Costs Related to the Management of Liver Cirrhosis Using National Patients Sample Data
- Affiliations
-
- 1College of Pharmacy, Sahmyook University, Seoul 01795, Republic of Korea.
- 2School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Gyeonggi-do 03063, Republic of Korea. ekyung@skku.edu
- KMID: 2369012
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/kjcp.2016.26.4.341
Abstract
- BACKGROUND
Liver cirrhosis causes substantial socio-economic burden and is one of the major severe liver diseases in Korea. Nonetheless, there is only a few studies that analyzes disease burden of liver cirrhosis in Korea. Such study must be carried out due to its increasing need from the invention of new drugs for chronic hepatitis and demand for cost-effectiveness analyses.
METHODS
Patient sample data with ensured representativeness was analyzed retrospectively to compare the medical costs and uses for patients with compensated cirrhosis and decompensated cirrhosis. Patient claims data that include K74 and K703 from the year of 2014 were selected. Within the selected data, decompensated cirrhosis patient was identified if complications such as ascites (R18), encephalopathy (B190), hepatic failure (K72), peritonitis (K65), or esophageal varices (I85) were included, and they were compared to compensated cirrhosis patients.
RESULTS
6,565 patients were included in the analysis. The average cost per patient was 6,471,020 (SD 8,848,899) KRW and 2,173,203 (4,220,942) KRW for decompensated cirrhosis and compensated cirrhosis, respectively. For inpatients, the average hospitalized days was 38.0 (56.4) days and 27.2 (57.2) days for decompensated cirrhosis and compensated cirrhosis, respectively. For outpatients, the average number of visits was 8.7 (9.1) days and 5.3 (7.5) days for compensated cirrhosis and decompensated cirrhosis, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Compared to compensated cirrhosis patients, decompensated cirrhosis patients had higher costs, especially for hospitalization, injection, examination, and drugs administrated within medical institutions.
