Open versus minimally invasive hepatic and pancreatic surgery: 1-year costs, healthcare utilization and days of work lost.

Background: Utilization of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has become increasingly popular due to its potential benefits such as earlier recovery and reduced morbidity. We sought to characterize differences in 1-year healthcare costs and missed workdays among patients undergoing MIS and open surgery for a hepatic or pancreatic indication.

Methods: Data on patients who underwent hepatic and pancreatic resection were obtained from the IBM Marketscan database. Generalized linear models were utilized to compare healthcare costs and missed workdays among patients undergoing MIS versus open surgery.

Results: Among 8705 patients, 85.0 % (n = 7399) and 15.0 % (n = 1306) of patients underwent an open or MIS HP procedure, respectively. In the unmatched cohort, patients who underwent MIS were more likely to be female (62.7 % vs. 54.6 %) and were less likely to have a Charlson Comorbidity Index score >2 (34.5 % vs. 49.6 %) (both p < 0.05). After entropy balancing, multivariable analysis demonstrated that MIS was associated with lower 1-year post discharge expenditures (mean difference -$9,739, 95%CI-$12,893, -$6585) and fewer missed workdays at 1-year post-discharge (IRR 0.84, 95%CI 0.81-0.87) (all p < 0.001).

Conclusion: At index hospitalization and 1-year post-discharge, an HP MIS approach was associated with lower healthcare expenditures versus open surgery for hepatic and pancreatic resection, as well as fewer missed workdays.