Cost-effectiveness of endovascular treatment versus best medical management in basilar artery occlusion stroke: A U.S. healthcare perspective

• Published in: European stroke journal 2024-03, Vol.9 (1), p.97-104
• Main Authors: Mehrens, Dirk, Fabritius, Matthias P, Reidler, Paul, Liebig, Thomas, Afat, Saif, Ospel, Johanna M, Fröhlich, Matthias F, Schwarting, Julian, Ricke, Jens, Dimitriadis, Konstantinos, Goyal, Mayank, Kunz, Wolfgang G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original s
• ISSN: 2396-9873; 2396-9881
• DOI: 10.1177/23969873231209616

Introduction: Two recent studies showed clinical benefit for endovascular treatment (EVT) in basilar artery occlusion (BAO) stroke up to 12 h (ATTENTION) and between 6 and 24 h from onset (BAOCHE). Our aim was to investigate the cost-effectiveness of EVT from a U.S. healthcare perspective. Materials and Methods: Clinical input data were available for both trials, which were analyzed separately. A decision model was built consisting of a short-run model to analyze costs and functional outcomes within 90 days after the index stroke and a long-run Markov state transition model (cycle length of 12 months) to estimate expected lifetime costs and outcomes from a healthcare and a societal perspective. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated, deterministic (DSA) and probabilistic (PSA) sensitivity analyses were performed. Results: EVT in addition to best medical management (BMM) resulted in additional lifetime costs of $32,063 in the ATTENTION trial and lifetime cost savings of $7690 in the BAOCHE trial (societal perspective). From a healthcare perspective, EVT led to incremental costs and effectiveness of $37,389 and 2.0 QALYs (ATTENTION) as well as $3516 and 1.9 QALYs (BAOCHE), compared to BMM alone. The ICER values were $−4052/QALY (BAOCHE) and $15,867/QALY (ATTENTION) from a societal perspective. In each trial, PSA showed EVT to be cost-effective in most calculations (99.9%) for a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100,000/QALY. Cost of EVT and age at stroke represented the greatest impact on the ICER. Discussion: From an economic standpoint with a lifetime horizon, EVT in addition to BMM is estimated to be highly effective and cost-effective in BAO stroke. Graphical abstract