Cost effectiveness of abciximab during routine medical practice.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the cost per ischaemic event (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, subsequent revascularisation procedure) avoided at 6 months in high risk patients undergoing coronary revascularisation treated with abciximab during routine medical care. DESIGN: Retrospective, matched cohort design. SETTING: University teaching hospital. PATIENTS: 62 abciximab-treated patients and 62 patients not treated with abciximab with high risk coronary lesions were matched according to gender, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes mellitus and stenting. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Using a third-party payer's perspective, an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was computed as the cost per ischaemic event avoided over 6 months. Fieller's theorem was used to estimate confidence sets and confidence ellipses were generated to visually represent the variability in the data. RESULTS: At 6 months, abciximab-treated patients experienced an approximately 40% lower rate of ischaemic events (16.1 vs 27.4%; p = 0.128). The point estimate of the ICER was $US21,789 per ischaemic event avoided. Fieller's theorem resulted in a 95% confidence set consisting of 2 half-lines (-infinity to -$US115,461) and ($US391 to +infinity), reflecting the finding that the ICER denominator was not significantly different from zero at the p = 0.05 level. CONCLUSIONS: In high risk patients treated during routine care, the effectiveness of abciximab was consistent with efficacy rates from clinical trials. However, abciximab-treated patients remained approximately $US2400 more costly at 6 months.