Browsing by Author "Kularatna, S."

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Challenges of costing a surgical procedure in a lower-middle-income country
(Springer-Verlag, 2019) Ekanayake, C.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Kularatna, S.; Herath, R.; Wijesinghe, P.
BACKGROUND: It is vital to enquire into cost of health care to ensure that maximum value for money is obtained with available resources; however, there is a dearth of information on cost of health care in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Our aim was to develop a reproducible costing method for three routes of hysterectomy in benign uterine conditions: total abdominal (TAH), non-descent vaginal (NDVH) and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH). METHODS: A societal perspective with a micro-costing approach was applied to find out direct and indirect costs. A total of 147 patients were recruited from a district general hospital (Mannar) and a tertiary care hospital (Ragama). Costs incurred from preoperative period to convalescence included direct costs of labour, equipment, investigations, medications and utilities, and indirect costs of out-of-pocket expenses, productivity losses, carer costs and travelling. Time-driven activity-based costing was used for labour, and top-down micro-costing was used for utilities. RESULTS: The total cost [(interquartile range), number] of TAH was USD 339 [(308-397), n = 24] versus USD 338 [(312-422), n = 25], NDVH was USD 315 [(316-541), n = 23] versus USD 357 [(282-739), n = 26] and TLH was USD 393 [(338-446), n = 24] versus USD 429 [(390-504), n = 25] at Mannar and Ragama, respectively. The direct cost of TAH, NDVH and TLH was similar between the two centres, whilst indirect cost was related to the setting rather than the route of hysterectomy. CONCLUSIONS: The costing method used in this study overcomes logistical difficulties in a LMIC and can serve as a guide for clinicians and policy makers in similar settings.
Challenges of costing a surgical procedure: a case study on hysterectomy
(Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, 2018) Ranasinghe, S.W.; Liyanage, L.; Peiris, R.; Bandaranayake, H.; Ekanayake, C.D.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Kularatna, S.; Wijesinghe, P.S.
INTRODUCTION: It is vital to enquire in to cost of healthcare to ensure that maximum value for money is obtained with available resources. However, there is a dearth of information on cost of healthcare in lower-middle income countries. Our aim was to study the costs for three routes of hysterectomy in benign uterine conditions; total abdominal (TAH), non-descent vaginal (NDVH) and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH). METHOD: A societal perspective with a micro-costing approach was applied to find out direct and indirect costs. Patients were recruited from a district general hospital (Mannar) and an urban tertiary care hospital (Ragama). The total cost incurred during pre-operative, operative, post-operative periods and convalescence included direct costs of labour, equipment, investigations, medications and utilities. Indirect costs included of out-of-pocket expenses, productivity losses, carer costs and travelling. Time-driven activity-based costing was used for labour costs and top down micro-costing was used for utilities. RESULTS: The median direct cost [(interquartile range), number] of TAH was Rs. 43054 [(41604 - 46243), n=24] versus Rs. 39430 [(37690 - 43054), n=25] (Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.01), NDVH was Rs. 40590 [(36965 - 44793), n=23] versus Rs.40155 [(36676 - 43779), n=26] (Mann-Whitney U test, p=0.984) and TLH was Rs. 47258 [(44359 - 51897), n=24] versus Rs. 53056 [(48128 - 55811), n=25] (Mann-Whitney U test, p=0.16) at Mannar and Ragama respectively. The median indirect cost (interquartile range) of TAH was Rs. 4204 (2174 12757) versus Rs. 9857 (5219 - 17251) (Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.05), NDVH was Rs.4349 (2174 - 8263) versus Rs. 10872 (5943 - 34646) (Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.01) and TLH was Rs. 6668 (2754 - 12902) versus Rs. 7538 (4929 - 21454) (MannWhitney U test, p=0.28) at Mannar and Ragama respectively. Sensitivity analysis using the best case scenario and a minimum wage of Rs. 1500 per day till time to recovery for TAH, NDVH and TLH showed a total cost of Rs. 87557, 78715 and 79150 respectively. CONCLUSION: Time-driven activity-based costing for labour and top down micro-costing of utilities helped to overcome logistical difficulties. Indirect costs at Ragama were significantly more than that at Mannar. Sensitivity analysis adjusted for the best case scenario and minimum wage suggested that NDVH and TLH may in fact be cheaper than TAH. The costing method used in this study is a simple and reproducible way of calculating costs of a surgical procedure which will serve as a guide for clinicians and policy makers in similar settings.
Cost evaluation, quality of life and pelvic organ function of three approaches to hysterectomy for benign uterine conditions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
(BioMed Central, 2017) Ekanayake, C.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Kularatna, S.; Herath, R.; Wijesinghe, P.
BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy is the commonest major gynaecological surgery. Although there are many approaches to hysterectomy, which depend on clinical criteria, certain patients may be eligible to be operated in any of the several available approaches. However, most comparative studies on hysterectomy are between two approaches. There is also a relative absence of data on long-term outcomes on quality of life and pelvic organ function. There is no single study which has considered quality of life, pelvic organ function and cost-effectiveness for the three main types of hysterectomy. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide evidence on the optimal route of hysterectomy in terms of cost-effectiveness by way of a three-armed randomized control study between non-descent vaginal hysterectomy, total laparoscopic hysterectomy and total abdominal hysterectomy. METHODS: A multicentre three-armed randomized control trial is being conducted at the professorial gynaecology unit of the North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka and gynaecology unit of the District General Hospital, Mannar, Sri Lanka. The study population is women needing hysterectomy for non-malignant uterine causes. Patients with a uterus > 14 weeks, previous pelvic surgery, those requiring incontinence surgery or pelvic floor surgery, any medical illness which caution/contraindicate laparoscopic surgery and who cannot read and write will be excluded. The main exposure variable is non-descent vaginal hysterectomy and total laparoscopic hysterectomy. The control group will be patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy. The primary outcome is time to recover following surgery, which is the earliest time to resume all of the usual activities done prior to surgery. In total, 147 patients (49 per arm) are needed to have 80% power at α-0.01 considering a loss to follow-up of 20% to detect a 7-day difference between the three routes; TLH versus TAH versus NDVH. The economic evaluation will take a societal perspective and will include direct costs in relation to allocation of healthcare resources and indirect costs which are borne by the patient. A micro-costing approach will be adopted to calculate direct costs from the time of presentation to the gynaecology clinic up to 6 months after surgery. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) will be obtained by calculating the incremental costs divided by the incremental effects (time to recover and QALYs gained) for the intervention groups (NDVH and TLH) over the standard care (TAH) group. DISCUSSION: The cost of the procedure, quality of life and pelvic organ function following the three main routes of hysterectomy are important to clinicians and healthcare providers, both in developed and developing countries.
Cost-effectiveness of three routes of hysterectomy: a multi-centre randomized controlled trial
(Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, 2018) Ekanayake, C.D.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Kularatna, S.; Herath, R.P.; Wijesinghe, P.S.
BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy is the commonest major gynaecological surgical procedure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of non-descent vaginal hysterectomy (NDVH) and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) compared to total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH). METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted at the gynaecology unit, District General Hospital, Mannar and professorial gynaecology unit, North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama. Study population (n=49 per arm) were women needing hysterectomy for non-malignant uterine causes. Exclusion criteria were uterus  14 weeks, previous pelvic surgery, those requiring incontinence/pelvic floor surgery, comorbidities which preclude laparoscopic surgery and women who were illiterate. Primary outcome was the time to recover following hysterectomy which was considered as the earliest time to resume activities done prior to surgery. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was done with pairwise comparison through log-rank test for the primary outcome. A micro-costing approach calculated utilization of hospital resources from the time of presentation up to six months after surgery. Incremental costeffectiveness ratios (ICER) were obtained by calculating the incremental costs divided by the incremental effects (time to recover) for the intervention groups (NDVH and TLH) over the standard care (TAH) group. RESULTS: The overall combined results from both centres did not show a significant difference in time to recover (median, 95% confidence interval) between TLH [30 days (29.0-31.0)], NDVH [32 days, (28.3-35.7)] and TAH [35 days (32.0-38.0)] (Kruskal-Wallis test, p=0.373). There was a significant difference in direct cost (median, inter quartile range) between TAH [Rs.41943, (38256-44476)] versus TLH [50608 (46670-54859)], Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.001, NDVH [Rs.40373 (3693244212) versus TLH, Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.001. There was no significant difference between TAH and NDVH, Mann-Whitney U test, p=0.076. ICERTLH-TAH was Rs. 1733/ day compared to TAH. ICERNDVH-TAH was not calculated as both the cost and effect were more favourable than TAH. ICERTLH-NDVH was Rs.3412/day compared to NDVH. CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in time to recover between TLH, NDVH and TAH. The optimum approach to hysterectomy appears to be NDVH in terms of costeffectiveness due to its lower cost, a fact that was suggested from the interim analysis presented at SLCOG sessions in 2017.