Cost analysis of total knee arthroplasty surgeries in Turkey.

Background and study aims: While working with increasing costs, hospital enterprises try to develop strategies to provide high quality services. In this study, we intended to perform the cost analysis of total knee arthroplasty.

Materials and methods: A total of 503 patients who were treated with total knee arthroplasty surgery due to gonarthrosis at Nevşehir State Hospital Orthopedics and Traumatology clinic were included in the study. Procedures performed while the patient is in hospital were analyzed by dividing them into the costs of the implant applied to the patient, surgical procedure, medications used, blood and blood products transfusion, medical tests, anesthesia procedure, bed fee and other applied procedures.

Results: The mean total cost was 7560.2 Turkish Lira (TL). The mean cost of the implant applied to the patient was 4847.7 TL, that of surgical procedure was 1800 TL, medications used 371.1 TL, blood and blood products transfusion 38.7 TL, medical tests 38.3 TL, anesthesia procedures 142.7 TL, bed fee 195.2 TL and other applied procedures 122.9 TL.

Conclusion: In the cost analyses made in this study, it is observed that the share of implant, surgical procedure and anesthesia costs within the total cost is approximately 90%. It is not possible to cut back on the producedures in this 90% part and to modify them. To reduce the total cost, it seems most reasonable to focus on the costs of blood and blood products transfusion, medical tests, medications used and bed fees.