[Medical devices used in digestive system surgical procedures: What's the cost?]

OBJECTIVE: Medical devices innovations and associated procedures represent a large part of health facilities budget. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cost of medical devices used during different surgical procedures. This cost was compare with the revenue collected from hospital stay pricing.

METHOD: A prospective analysis of the medical devices used in operating room was carried out for different types of programmed surgeries. For five weeks, references of sterile single-use medical devices used during the interventions were collected.

RESULTS: Expenditure on medical devices used during surgical procedures represented 5.7 % of the hospitalization value for an inguinal hernia repair, 12 % for a cholecystectomy, 9.35 % for a colectomy, 14.5 % for a hepatectomy and 7 % for pancreatectomy, any severity index combined. The most important correlations existed between act duration and patient's level of severity and between operating times and consumables expenditure.

CONCLUSION: Cost optimization opportunities are equivalence of some medical devices ranges, purchases with national groupings and potential decreases in operating times related to the use of innovative medical devices.