We calculated quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for each patient from a self-administered health utility index 3 questionnaire for the first 12 months following the intramedullary nailing. A convenience sample of 235 SPRINT patients provided data on costs associated with health care resource utilization. All costs are reported in Canadian dollars for the 2008 financial year.
We found incremental effects of ?.017 (95 % confidence interval [CI] ?.021?.058) and ?.002 (95 % CI ?.060?.062) QALYs for patients treated with reamed compared with unreamed intramedullary nails in closed and open fractures, respectively. The incremental costs for reamed compared with unreamed intramedullary nailing were $51 Canadian dollars (95 % CI ?2298?2400) in closed tibial fractures and $2546 Canadian dollars (95 % CI ?1773?6864) in open tibial fractures. Unreamed nailing dominated reamed nailing for both closed and open tibial fractures; however, the cost and the utility results had high variability.
Our economic analysis from a governmental perspective suggests small differences in both cost and effectiveness with large uncertainty between reamed and unreamed intramedullary nailing.