COMPARING TIME AND SUPPLIES USAGE ASSOCIATED WITH A NEW SKIN CLOSURE DEVICE VS. STANDARD OF CARE WOUND CLOSURE FOR ABDOMINOPLASTY SURGERY IN THE NETHERLANDS
Author(s)
Floortje Van Nooten, MSc, Senior Research Associate1, Erwin De Cock, MSc, Senior Research Associate2, Jan Fabré, MD, Plastic surgeon3, Robert Tan, MBChB, Manager41United BioSource Corporation, Brussels, Flanders, Belgium; 2 United BioSource Corporation, Barcelona, Spain; 3 UMC St. Radboud, Nijmegen, Netherlands; 4 Ethicon, Livingston, United Kingdom
OBJECTIVES: PRINEO® Skin Closure System (PRINEO) offers effective and safe wound closure compared to conventional suture techniques i.e. Standard of Care (SOC). The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in health resource utilization attributable to use of PRINEO vs. SOC for abdominoplasty surgery. METHODS: A time and motion study was conducted in one centre in the Netherlands. Trained centre staff collected ten observations (five for PRINEO and five for SOC) following the patient from surgery through post-op care. Data Observation Forms were designed based on information obtained from staff interviews. Surgical wound closure and management activities were observed for which differences in time and resource use between PRINEO and SOC were expected: incision closure time, dressing applications, and dressing changes (during admission and post-discharge return). RESULTS: Average time for skin layer closure was 1.29 min for PRINEO vs. 17.95 min for SOC. Average wound length was 48 cm vs. 49 cm, respectively. This translates into a speed of closure increase from 2.73 cm/min (SOC) to 37.09 cm/min (PRINEO). Average time for wound closure (dermal and skin layer) was 24.85 min with PRINEO compared to 31.83 min for SOC. The SOC treatment arm incurred 2.19 min and 3.07 min for dressing application and post-op dressing changes respectively. PRINEO did not require any dressing. Additionally, use of PRINEO resulted in elimination of suture closure materials which on average included 2.4 strands of Monocryl 2-0 sutures, 5.7 adhesive dressings, 17.4 strips of adhesive tapes, and 9.3 gauze swabs. One PRINEO unit was required. CONCLUSIONS: The use of PRINEO resulted in increased skin closure speed and avoided final skin layer closure and aftercare management of the wound in terms of dressing application and changes. Concomitant to the savings in personnel time was a reduction in surgical supply materials.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2008-11, ISPOR Europe 2008, Athens, Greece
Value in Health, Vol. 11, No. 6 (November 2008)
Code
PHC12
Topic
Economic Evaluation
Topic Subcategory
Cost/Cost of Illness/Resource Use Studies
Disease
Surgery