Hospital costs and health-related quality of life from complications after esophagectomy

Abstract

Background: Approximately 50% of all patients undergoing esophagectomy experience complications. This paper estimates the costs due to complications after esophagectomy in a Swedish context.

Material and methods: The Swedish National Register for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer (NREV) and the Healthcare Consumption Register in Region Skåne (RSVD) were crossmatched for patients undergoing esophagectomy between 2010 and 2015 in Region Skåne, Sweden (n = 132). Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed on the logarithm of total healthcare cost. HRQoL was presented descriptively.

Results: The mean total healthcare costs were 335,016 SEK (€33,502) for the group with no complications and 438,320 SEK (€43,832) and 808,461 SEK (€80,846) for minor and major complications (p < 0.001), respectively. Pneumonia (p < 0.001), laryngeal nerve paresis (p = 0.002) and other complications (p < 0.001) showed significant associations with increased healthcare cost. No significant difference was found in QALY-weights between the complication grades. Patients that underwent esophagectomy reported poorer HRQoL than the scores valued by the general background population.

Conclusion: Complications following esophagectomy incrementally increase the healthcare costs, where more severe complications led to higher healthcare costs. The severity of complications did not affect the mean QALY-weights.

Keywords: Complications; Esophageal cancer; Esophagectomy; Health care costs; Health-related quality of life; Quality-adjusted life years.