Objectives: This study was designed to estimate the potential budget impact of use of iodine impregnated drapes vs clear incise drapes in cardiac surgery across selected countries in Latin America.

Methods: A previously published economic model was used. The model calculates the potential budget impact based on cost and risk of surgical site infection (SSI) from perspective of private health care in Brazil and public health care in Mexico, Colombia and Chile. The model considers an SSI risk of 1.9% for the iodine impregnated drape and 6.6% for the control (p=0.001). Local material costs have been applied. A systematic review on the cost of SSI for these countries yielded no results, therefore a micro-costing methodology was used for Brazil, Colombia and Chile. For Mexico, applicable diagnosis related groups (DRGs) have been used for SSI cost estimation. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis was performed to characterize uncertainty of SSI risk and cost of SSI. All calculations have been performed in local currency and have been translated to US dollars.

Results: The micro-costing method provides an SSI cost of $4,395 for Chile, $5,098 for Colombia and $9,768 for Brazil. The SSI cost for Mexico was $3,279. The corresponding total cost reduction for 1000 patients using iodine impregnated incise drapes was $197,215 (64.0%) for Chile, $252,285 (68.7%) for Colombia, $460,177 (68.2%) for Brazil and $154,784 (69.5%) for Mexico. The probabilistic sensitivity analysis demonstrated a 100% probability of cost saving for all countries.

Conclusions: The use of iodine impregnated incise drapes in cardiac surgery is likely to be cost saving for hospital budgets for all countries included in this analysis. Savings are also expected in countries like Mexico, where the used micro-costing approach provided a relatively low SSI cost.