PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to compare the in-hospital costs associated with the tissue-sparing supercapsular percutaneously-assisted total hip (SuperPath) and traditional Lateral surgical techniques for total hip replacement (THR).

METHODS

Between April 2013 and January 2014, in-hospital costs were reviewed for all THRs performed using the SuperPath technique by a single surgeon and all THRs performed using the Lateral technique by another surgeon at the same institution.

RESULTS

Overall, costs were 28.4% higher in the Lateral group. This was largely attributable to increased costs associated with transfusion (+92.5%), patient rooms (+60.4%), patient food (+62.8%), narcotics (+42.5%), physical therapy (+52.5%), occupational therapy (+88.6%), and social work (+92.9%). The only costs noticeably increased for SuperPath were for imaging (+105.9%), and this was because the SuperPath surgeon performed intraoperative radiographs on all patients while the Lateral surgeon did not.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of the SuperPath technique resulted in in-hospital cost reductions of over 28%, suggesting that this tissue-sparing surgical technique can be cost-effective primarily by facilitating early mobilisation and patient discharge even during a surgeon's initial experience with the approach.