Cost effectiveness of a treatment is an important factor in decision making in the United Kingdom. Preceding most interventional health care treatments there is a waiting period between decision and procedure where health care costs may be lessened. @entity262 ( @entity262 ) are a recognised @entity158 management therapy for chronic non-malignant @entity158 . To our knowledge, the period of time between being placed on a waiting list for @entity262 and the implant (latent period) has not been taken into consideration for cost effectiveness analysis. A retrospective longitudinal analysis of all @entity158 related costs for a period no less than 4 years was undertaken by assessment of medical records of 12 consecutive @entity1 implanted with @entity262 for chronic non-malignant @entity158 . The total cost of @entity1 care for 2 years before latent, the latent period itself and 2 years after the implant of an @entity262 was computed, according to the National Health Service tariff. An EQ-5D questionnaire was filled by all @entity1 before and after @entity262 implant. Total costs were converted to cost per day for comparison with latent period. The average duration of the latent period was 263    176 days (range 3-489). The cost of conventional treatments during the pre-implant phase excluding the latent period was significantly higher (M =    5,005.86, SE =    918.56) compared with the costs of the same phase including the latent period (M =    4,086.35, SE =    959.09, t(11) = 2.23, p = 0.05, r = 0.56). The cost per day changed significantly over the different periods (  (2)(2) = 24.00, p < 0.05). The variability and significantly lower costs of the latent period may influence cost effectiveness evaluations and consequently decision making, if not considered. Further studies analysing the influence of a latent period on the cost effectiveness of other treatments are warranted.

Influence of a latent period in QALY analysis: pilot study of intrathecal drug delivery systems for chronic non-malignant XXXX .

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants', 'patients', 'patient'] @entity262 :: ('MESH:D034721', 'Disease') :: ['IDDS', 'Intrathecal drug delivery systems'] @entity158 :: ('MESH:D010146', 'Disease') :: ['pain']
@entity158 :: (MESH:D010146,Disease) :: ['pain']
