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Pharmacoeconomics of therapy for Guillain-Barre syndrome: plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin.
J Clin Neurosci. 2007 Jul;14(7):625-629.
Tsai CP, Wang KC, Liu CY, Sheng WY, Lee TC.
Neurology,
The Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Taipei
City Hospital, 201, Sec. 2 Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
Guillain-Barre
syndrome (GBS) is an acute neuropathy and a clinical syndrome that
includes a number of pathological and electrophysiological subtypes.
Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and plasma exchange (PE) are both
equally efficacious for the treatment of GBS; however, the cost of IVIG
may be lower for both the patient and the healthcare system.
To compare
the pharmacoeconomics of PE and IVIG in GBS, a retrospective study was
done from 1999 to 2004, which included a total of 24 patients with GBS
who were admitted to Taipei Veterans General Hospital. This showed that
except for the costs of the drugs used in IVIG, treatment of GBS with
IVIG was more cost-effective (p=0.057) than that with PE in total
length of hospitalization and the cost of procedures and
hospitalization. The study also showed that the total costs were higher
for patients on ventilators than those not requiring ventilators
(p=0.008, t-test) and the length of hospitalization showed a very
strong linear relationship to total costs (Pearson correlation
coefficient=0.907). The regression analysis showed that each additional
day of hospitalization increased the hospitalization costs by an
average of 5599 New Taiwan Dollars (NT) (US$1.00=NT$33.50 in 2005).
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