ISSN: 2641-9459
Authors: Tariku Shimels* and Arebu I Bilal
Background: The burden of end stage kidney disease (ESKD) characterized with a requirement with lifesaving dialysis or kidney transplantation is estimated to be more than 1.4 million whereas the annual incidence exceeds 8% worldwide. In Ethiopia, there is no renal transplant practice whereas hemodialysis is characterized with very limited number of dialysis centers in the capital; Addis Ababa. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the cost-utility of hemodialysis and renal transplantation in Ethiopia. Method: A cost utility evaluation (CUA) was produced to estimate if kidney transplantation would be a cost-effective alternative to hemodialysis. The decision model was developed as a decision tree that allows for comparisons of costutility evaluation between the two alternatives. While a patient perspective was used in the study, The Probabilities cost of transplant and effects included in this study were derived from the literature following a formal MEDLINE search for studies published in English language. Results: Transplantation resulted in an incremental cost of $42,623.74 and incremental utility of 3.18 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) compared with conventional hemodialysis presented with an incremental cost of $25,902.08 but very less QALY of 0.36 over a five years’ time horizon. Given its higher incremental costs, transplantation remained more cost effective than hemodialysis (ICUR of 13414.67 vs. 71860.00 $/QALY). The one way ANOVA sensitivity analysis has also confirmed that the result of the CUA is not sensitive to any plausible parameter changes. Conclusion: Our cost utility analysis result demonstrated that the incremental cost utility ratio of a patient’s five year therapy by hemodialysis at end-stage renal disease is significantly higher than by performing therapy of kidney transplantation, by more than a factor of five times.
Keywords: Ethiopia, Cost utility analysis, Hemodialysis, Transplantation
