OBJECTIVES : Injuries are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing and in industrialized regions. The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of intracranial injury in Hungary.

METHODS : The data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the number of patients and the health insurance treatment cost for the year 2017. The following cost categories were included into the study: out-patient care, laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, acute in-patient care, chronic in-patient care and drugs. Patients with intracranial injury were identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10^threvision: S06.

RESULTS : Number of patients admitted to in-patient hospital care was 17,643 (40.9 % women and 59.1 % men) with a mean age of 40.84 years (women: 41.57 years; men: 40.33 years). The number of patients underwent outpatient care was 41,453 (42.4 % women and 57.6 % men) with a mean age of 40.05 years (women: 41.98 years; men: 38.52 years). For the treatment of patients with intracranial injuries in 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 8.942 billion Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 28.920 million Euros (EUR). Major cost drivers were acute inpatient care (95.6 % of total health insurance costs), chronic inpatient care (2.7 %) and outpatient care (1.3 %).

CONCLUSIONS : Intracranial injuries represent a significant burden for the Hungarian health insurance system. The disease is more common in men (57-59 %) than women. There is no significant difference (1-3 years) in the onset of the disease between women and men.