(HE-001) Health economic evaluation of two types of compression systems used for the local treatment of venous leg ulcers, leading to conclusions, whose relative implications are likely to be universal irrespective of geography.

Introduction:

Due to high incidence, long healing time and high impact on the cost of care, venous leg ulcers represent a burden on the community and on patients. The main objective of this study is to estimate the rate of complete healing of venous leg ulcers via a compression system that is available in the USA and in France. Secondary objectives include estimation of healing time of leg ulcers and the cost of treatment per healed ulcer. The relative differences in clinical values that have an impact on the treatment costs should be universally true for all countries

Methods:

The data used are those that are available from the French national health database, reflecting 99% of the population residing in France during the period 2018-2020. We examined data for all patients with a first episode of venous leg ulcer, whether healed or not over the study. The probability of healing over time was modeled by a Kaplan-Meier curve, for all patients and based on the type of product used. Two general product types were studied first, Multilayer Bandages (MLB) and Short Stretch Bandages (SSB). The costs are linked to the pathology and reimbursed by the French National Healthcare System for healed patients (21,655 patients). Analysis was done in addition of the healing data from one specific short stretch bandage (SSB)* and one multilayer bandage (MLB), called a Dual Compression System** (DCS) so called as it contains both short and long stretch bandages.

Results: Of 25,255 patients who used MLB or SSB over treatment period, the healing rate at 3 months was significantly higher with MLBs than for all SSBs: 42% vs 35%. At one month a 25% higher chance of healing was seen with MLBs versus SSBs (p< 0.001). The median healing time for VLUs were estimated at 137 days (SSB group)versus 115 days in the MLB group. Very similar results were observed in comparing specifically the two most represented brands for each type of bandage one, a short stretch bandage* the other, a MLB, the DCS** system. Finally, due to faster healing, the MLB systems as a group reduce the average treatment cost per patient by 20% compared to SSB group (€2,875 and €3,580 respectively).

Discussion: This new real-life data from a very large cohort of patients confirms the superior efficiency of the multilayer compression bandage system in healing rate, time to heal and health economic savings compared to simple short stretch systems.

Trademarked Items: *Rosidal K
** UrgoK2, Urgo Medical North America, Fort Worth Texas

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Improve chronic wound management- Health Insurance 18/03/2015: https:// www.ameli.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/ Ame- liorer_la_prise_en_charge_des_plaies_chroniques.pdf + RCT (ODYSSEY Study) I. Lazareth et al. (2012) Efficacy of two compression systems in the ma- nagement of VLUs: results of a European RCT. Journal of Wound Care:21(11);553–565 (Lazareth et al., 2012).
2.
SNIIRAM data from the CNAM 2014 Expenses and Revenues Report.
3.
Improve chronic wound management – 2015 + CNAM Expenses and Products Report 2014.