Resources utilisation and economic burden of percutaneous vertebroplasty or percutaneous kyphoplasty for treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures in China: a retrospective claim database study.

BACKGROUND

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCF) is a common and often debilitating complication of osteoporosis, leading to significant morbidity and increased mortality. Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and Percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) are recommendable surgical treatments for OVCF.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate PVP/PKP utilisation and their related direct medical costs for OVCF treatment in China from the payer perspective.

METHODS

A population-based medical claims database of a metropolitan city in China was analysed from the payer perspective, which included all inpatient claims from 01/01/2015 to 31/12/2017. All vertebral fractures patients that met the eligibility criteria (aged ≥50 years old, having vertebral fracture diagnosis, without unrelated diseases diagnoses such as tumour and scoliosis, received PVP/PKP) were deemed as OVCF patients. Baseline characteristics, surgery rate, length of stay in hospital, time to re-surgery, and costs (including costs per hospitalisation and annual costs) were described. Survival analysis function was used to estimate the re-surgery rate.

RESULTS

Of the 50,686 patients with OVCF identified, 14,527 (28.66%) received a total number of 15,599 records of PVP/PKP surgeries from 2015 to 2017. Mean age was 75 at the first surgery captured in the database analysis period; females accounted for 79.54% of all cases. The median length of surgery stay was 9 days. Cumulative re-surgery rates were 1.22% in 30 days, 2.58% in 90 days, 3.61% in 183 days, 5.42% in 1 year, and 7.95% in 2 years. There was no significant difference in re-surgery rate between PVP and PKP (p = 0.3897). The median time to the re-surgery was 139 days. Mean costs per PVP/PKP-related hospitalisation were 35,906 CNY/5122 USD (34,195 CNY/4878USD for PVP, 44,414 CNY/6336 USD for PKP, p < 0.01). The overall costs of hospitalisation averaged 186.61 million CNY (26.62 million USD) per year in this metropolitan city.

CONCLUSION

From 2015 to 2017, nearly one-third of OVCF inpatients received PVP/PKP and the re-surgery rate was 7.95%. PVP/PKP procedures for OVCF place a high economic burden for both the healthcare system and patients. Early detection and treatment of patients with osteoporosis are critical in China.