Economic Evaluation of Chronic Rhinosinusitis Management
Summary
Chronic rhinosinusitis imposes a substantial economic burden through direct medical costs, indirect productivity losses and long-term treatment expenses. Economic evaluations aim to inform decision-makers by comparing costs and outcomes of alternative management strategies, encompassing medical therapies, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and integrated care pathways. Methods include cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis and decision-analytic modelling, often linking symptom scores or health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures to utility values such as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Key drivers of expenditure include recurrence rates, revision procedures, corticosteroid and antibiotic use, specialist consultations and hospital admissions. Structured clinical pathways have been developed to standardise care, reduce unnecessary resource use and optimise timing of surgery. Economic models typically adopt a societal or healthcare payer perspective, incorporate both direct and indirect costs over a relevant time horizon, and apply sensitivity analyses to capture uncertainty. Evidence suggests that early surgical intervention may attenuate cumulative healthcare demands, while pathway-driven management can align resource allocation with disease severity, improving value for money across diverse health systems.
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Economic Evaluation of Chronic Rhinosinusitis Management publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in economic evaluation of chronic rhinosinusitis management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Quality-adjusted life year (QALY): Composite measure combining quantity and quality of life, used to compare health interventions.
Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER): Additional cost required to gain one extra unit of health outcome, typically one QALY, when comparing two interventions.
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL): Patient-reported measure of physical, mental and social well-being affected by health conditions and treatments.
Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS): Minimally invasive procedure to restore sinus drainage and ventilation in chronic rhinosinusitis.
Clinical pathway: Standardised multidisciplinary care plan outlining optimal steps in treatment to enhance efficiency and outcomes.
References
- Timing of Surgery and Outcomes in Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Narrative Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Otolaryngology (2024).
- Evaluation of previous management against a developed clinical pathway for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center. Medicine (2021).
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