A new study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine examines the seven-year health economic value of cervical total disc replacement using the ProDisc-C compared with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.
The researchers examined seven-year data from more than 70 percent of the 209 patients included in the ProDisc-C total disc replacement investigational device exemption study. The researchers examined statistical distributions for unit costs from commercial claims database and applied the Monte Carlo simulation.
The researchers measured the monetary benefit with the nonparametric percentile method from 10,000 bootstrap simulations. Here are five key findings:
1. The cervical total disc replacement patients recorded on average $12,789 savings. The per-patient quality-adjusted life years were 0.16.
2. The spinal fusion patients reported higher cost — $20,856 — compared with the disc replacement patients — $5,362 on average. The average QALY for the fusion patients was 0.39.
3. The cervical disc replacement was more effective and less costly in 90.8 percent of the probabilistic simulations, according to the report.
4. In almost all — 99.8 percent — of the sensitivity analysis simulations the disc replacement was cost-effective and generated an average incremental net monetary benefit of $20,679 per patient. The willingness-to-pay threshold was $50,000 QALY.
5. The researchers concluded disc replacement was more effective and less costly for single-level symptomatic degenerative disc disease patients.