Cost comparison of four revascularisation procedures for the treatment of multivessel coronary artery disease: a commentary.

OBJECTIVE An economic evaluation was performed, using modelling techniques, to compare 1-year total costs of four revascularisation procedures in patients with multivessel disease: on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG); off-pump CABG; percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with bare-metal stents (BMS); and PCI with drug-eluting stents (DES). METHODS Clinical data were derived from four randomised clinical trials comparing CABG versus PCI, as well as from literature reviews. Resource use and unit cost estimates were modelled to reflect current Canadian practice. RESULTS This study demonstrated that 1 year after the initial revascularisation, PCI with BMS is the least costly procedure, followed by off-pump CABG, PCI with DES and on-pump CABG. DES became the most costly procedure if 3.5 or more DES were used or if staged PCI was performed.