Cost-Effectiveness of Negative Pressure Incision Management System in Cardiac Surgery

BACKGROUND: Sternal wound infections (SWI) can be a devastating long-term complication with significant morbidity and health care cost. The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of negative pressure incision management systems (NPIMS) in cardiac surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All cardiac surgery cases at an academic hospital with risk scores available (2009–2017) were extracted from an institutional database (n=4,455). Patients were stratified by utilization of NPIMS and high-risk was defined as above the median. Costs included infection related readmissions and were adjusted for inflation. Multivariable regression models assessed the risk-adjusted cost of SWI and efficacy of NPIMS use. Cost-effectiveness was modeled using TreeAge Pro using institutional results. RESULTS: The rate of deep SWI was 0.9% with an estimated cost of $111,175 (p