Direct cost of medical care in patients with gonarthrosis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the cost of medical care in patients with gonarthrosis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cost study in patients over 40 years of age with gonarthrosis, diagnosed according to the radiological classification of Kellgren and Lawrence. The average annual cost (euros) was estimated taking the unit cost plus average use of services such as family medicine, imaging, laboratory, electrodiagnosis, orthopedics, hospitalization, physical therapy, surgery, nutrition, preoperative assessment and medication. Projections based on assumptions were made for three scenarios.

RESULTS: Grade 2 gonarthrosis predominated at 39.7% (95% confidence interval, 33.8 - 45.6). The annual cost of care for a patient with gonarthrosis was €108.87 in the intermediate scenario, €86.73 in the lower cost scenario and €132.60 in the higher cost scenario. For a population of 119,530,753 inhabitants, with 10,937,064 gonarthrosis patients, the annual cost in the intermediate scenario was €1,190,685,273 and represented 4.48% of the health expenditure.

CONCLUSION: The average annual cost of gonarthrosis is relatively low, but when related to prevalence and prevalence trends, it can become a serious problem for health services.