Economic Impact of Managing Acute Diabetic Foot Infection in a Tertiary Hospital in Malaysia

Diabetic foot disease is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations of the lower limb, hence a major health care and socioeconomic burden. It has been found that most of the costs occur in the inpatient setting; therefore this study is to quantify the costs of managing inpatient diabetic foot in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lam AWC, Zaim MR, HH Helmy, IMA Ramdhan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Malaysian Orthopaedic Association 2014-03-01
Series:Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.morthoj.org/2014/v8n1/acute-diabetic-foot-infection.pdf
Description
Summary:Diabetic foot disease is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations of the lower limb, hence a major health care and socioeconomic burden. It has been found that most of the costs occur in the inpatient setting; therefore this study is to quantify the costs of managing inpatient diabetic foot infections (DFI). We treated 182 inpatients from May 2012 till April 2013 and analysed the cost of antibiotic usage, wound dressing, surgical procedure, admission and basic investigation costs. The total cost was ~ USD 11,000 (2013). This number, however, only reflects the cost for managing an acute infection. The price for follow-up care as an outpatient, rehabilitation and indirect costs (emotional suffering, reduced productivity) is estimated to be much more.
ISSN:1985-2533