Article Text
Abstract
Aim To determine whether internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling is cost-effective compared with no peeling for patients with an idiopathic stage 2 or 3 full-thickness macular hole.
Methods A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed alongside a randomised controlled trial. 141 participants were randomly allocated to receive macular-hole surgery, with either ILM peeling or no peeling. Health-service resource use, costs and quality of life were calculated for each participant. The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained was calculated at 6 months.
Results At 6 months, the total costs were on average higher (£424, 95% CI −182 to 1045) in the No Peel arm, primarily owing to the higher reoperation rate in the No Peel arm. The mean additional QALYs from ILM peel at 6 months were 0.002 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.013), adjusting for baseline EQ-5D and other minimisation factors. A mean incremental cost per QALY was not computed, as Peeling was on average less costly and slightly more effective. A stochastic analysis suggested that there was more than a 90% probability that Peeling would be cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20 000 per QALY.
Conclusion Although there is no evidence of a statistically significant difference in either costs or QALYs between macular hole surgery with or without ILM peeling, the balance of probabilities is that ILM Peeling is likely to be a cost-effective option for the treatment of macular holes. Further long-term follow-up data are needed to confirm these findings.
- Clinical trial
- macula
- retina
- treatment surgery
- vitreous
- epidemiology
- choroid
- neovascularisation
- imaging
- treatment lasers
- treatment surgery
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Footnotes
Funding Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates.
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was published Online First. The authors' acknowledgements have been added.
Competing interests None.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by the Multicentre Research Ethics Committee, Local Ethics Committees and local hospital trusts of each participating centre.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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