Cost of Therapeutic Care for Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis in a Public Hospital in Congo Brazzaville in 2022

Objective: Evaluate the cost of CRD (Chronic Renal Disease) management at the dialysis stage, in a public hospital in Congo Brazzaville. Patient and method: It was a longitudinal and descriptive study of 7 months, which took place over the period from February 1 to August 31, 2022, in the Nephrology-Hemodialysis department of HGELBO It focused on 35 patients identified in a way exhaustive. Socio-demographic and clinical information and expenses incurred over 3 months were collected from medical records and during individual interviews using pre-established survey sheets. SPSS 22 software was used for data analysis and processing. Results: Of the 35 patients, 26 were men, i.e., a sex ratio of 2.9. The mean age was 51.2 ± 12.3 years. Only 3 patients (9%) had health insurance and 52.2% of working patients had lost their job after starting dialysis. The median monthly cost of a chronic HD patient was 630,800 CFA Francs. Direct expenses amounted to 589,367 CFA Francs, they represented 93.4% of the total cost and are dominated by the cost of dialysis consumables (56.9%). The monthly median indirect cost was evaluated at 60,000 CFA Francs and represents 9.2% of the overall cost. The average cost of an HD session was evaluated at 31,219.4 CFA Francs. The total annual cost of the patient in HD maintenance was estimated at 7,569,600 CFA Francs. Conclusion: The cost of caring for HD patients is high. The cost of managing CR at the dialysis stage is beyond the reach of most patients, so there is a need to implement strategies to prevent and manage ESRD in our setting.