Original scientific paper
Treatment Costs for the Patient with Head and Neck Tumours
Marijo Jurić
Vedran Uglešić
Goran Knežević
Irina Filipović-Zore
Abstract
Surgery of head and neck tumours is complex and unequivocally expensive. There have been very few investigations to date in the world on the cost of treatment of this group of patients, and in Croatia not one. The aim of the present study was to determine the cost of treating patients with head and neck tumours, its structure and factors which have a significant influence on it. The study included 248 patients, treated in the Clinic of Maxillofacial Surgery in Zagreb during the period 1995 - 1996. The cost of treatment is presented as the total cost of hospital expenses, diagnostics, operations, anaesthesia and radiotherapy, and its dependence on all factors tested which we assumed to have a significant effect on it.
The average cost of treatment for the patient with head and neck tumours is 17,297 kn. The duration of hospitalisation, type of ablation and reconstructive surgical procedure has the greatest influence on the cost of treatment. Thus, intervention in this segment would enable the greatest savings. As the duration of treatment and type of therapy is decided by the physician, the planning and realisation of cheaper treatment is the responsibility of the physician.
Keywords
head and neck tumours; treatment costs
Hrčak ID:
891
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2005.
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