BCN HEALTH publica un estudio evaluando la incidencia hospitalaria y los costes médicos asociados a la hidrocefalia congénita en España

BCN HEALTH has published the study ‘Hospital incidence and costs of congenital hydrocephalus in Spain: a multicenter retrospective study’ in the journal ‘Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, an international journal publishing rigorously peer-reviewed articles on several aspects of pharmacoeconomics.

BCN HEALTH conducted a retrospective study based on the records of patients hospitalized due to congenital hydrocephalus and treated in Spanish public and private hospitals between January of 2010 and December of 2019. The objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence of the disease at the hospital level and to calculate the associated medical costs.

Data corresponding to 1716 individual patients was analyzed, 663 of the patients were perinatal patients. Median age was 9 years and 54% of the patients were males. The most frequent comorbidities were episodic and paroxysmal disorders, hypertension, hyperlipidemias, congenital malformations of the circulatory system and musculoskeletal system, bacterial and viral infections, disorders of the newborn (low birth weight, preterm newborn), hemorrhagic disorders and diabetes mellitus. The hospitalization rate was 0.5 cases per 10,000 patients, 5.2 per 10,000 perinatal patients, with no significant trends identified over the study period. In-hospital mortality rate was 1.7%, 16 deaths were registered during the hospital admission in perinatal patients, 13 in patients aged 1 year or older. 

ICU stays were registered in 24% of the cases. Mean length of hospital stay was 9 days and mean length of ICU stay was 4 days. Perinatal patients registered more frequent urgent and ICU admissions and longer hospital stays, with more frequent surgical interventions and mechanical ventilation. Mean admission cost was €9610, €12,633 in perinatal patients. Hospitalization costs decreased over the study period.  

More information can be found at https://doi.org/10.1080/14737167.2022.2035724.