Peritoneal Dialysis: Saving Lives, Saving Money

Main Category: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 07 Aug 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Worldwide, the number of patients with kidney failure is growing. Untreated it is fatal, yet treatment is so costly that many countries struggle to meet increasing demand. The majority of patients with kidney failure must travel to a dialysis unit three times weekly for hemodialysis (HD) treatment. However, peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a home dialysis alternative known to provide health and lifestyle benefits for many patients and is less costly according to nearly all formal evaluations.

A recent evaluation "Gaining Efficiencies: Resources and Demand for Dialysis Around the Globe," published in Value in Health, outlines the relative advantages of HD and PD and estimates the five-year financial implications on total dialysis costs in eight countries (UK, Singapore, Mexico, Chile, Romania, Thailand, China, Colombia) with increased PD use. Directing dialysis patients to PD, when clinically appropriate, could lead to substantial savings. The evaluation was co-authored by Nancy Neil, David Walker, Ricardo Sesso, Juan Carlos Blackburn, Elizabeth Tschosik, Vito Sciaraffia, Fernando Garcia-Contreras, Dimitrie Capsa and Samir Bhattacharyya.

Says Dr. Neil, "Growing financial pressures obligate decision makers to grapple with how best to allocate healthcare resources." Prevention is one strategy to save lives and reduce the cost of treatment for dialysis. A complementary approach is to maximize the cost-efficiency of dialysis wherever possible. The cumulative savings from even a modest increase in the use of PD would be enough to provide a year of dialysis for nearly 20,000 patients across the countries we evaluated."

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 3,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

ABSTRACT

http://www.ispor.org

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