Abstract

CASTILLO GUZMAN, Antonio et al. Cost-effectiveness of the biventricular resynchronization as an alternative therapy for heart failure. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2009, vol.35, n.3. ISSN 0864-3466.

Introduction The final evolution of most of cardiovascular diseases is the heart failure syndrome and there are several ways to treat it. For those patients refractory to drug therapy, one of the most recent methods is biventricular resyncronization. Objectives To identify costs and level of effectiveness of biventricular resynchronization as a choice of treatment of refractory heart failure patients with His´bundle left branch blocking. Methods A cost-effectiveness type economic assessment was made following Drummond et al´s classification. The considered period of time was 6 months to one year. The analyzed alternatives were biventricular resynchronization and drug therapy as theoretical alternative to non-resynchronization. The universe of study was 30 patients suffering heart failure refractory to treatment. The effectiveness variable was prevented death. Results In this group, 76.6% of patients were males and 23.4% were females. Mortality rate was 36.6% in the follow-up period. The effectiveness of the procedure was 63.4% representing 19 prevented deaths. The incremental cost-effectiveness was $ 33 805.00 pesos. Conclusions The introduction of therapeutic option known as biventricular resynchronization to treat heart failure was cost-effective.

Keywords : Cost-effectiveness; biventricular resynchronization; heart failure syndrome.

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