Through our cost-utility research, we hope to improve the cost-effectiveness of various spine surgeries and to improve understanding of cost inefficient practice paradigms. We are currently prospectively collecting long-term variables of resource utilization, direct medical costs, occupation loss, and assessing total direct and indirect costs of all patients undergoing spine surgery. Health state utility (quality adjusted life years) are also concurrently collected for two-years in order to determine the incremental cost effective ratio for each spinal procedure performed. Select outcomes projects include:
- Cost-effectiveness of minimally invasive versus open vertebrectomy in patients with spinal metastasis.
- Cost effectiveness of lumbar fusion versus medical management for low-grade lumbar stenosis.
- Cost comparison of direct lateral trans-psoas interbody fusion versus posterior fusion for adjacent segment disease.
MIS- versus open-TLIF was associated with a mean two-year cost savings of $8,731 per patient while providing 0.09 QALYs gained
