Patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) utilize more health care resources and face higher costs than patients who can control their condition with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Despite the long-term proven effectiveness of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), the treatment is currently underutilized. The time to initial implant occurs approximately 20 years after initial diagnosis and after an average of seven different drug therapies have been tried.
VNS is an approved therapy used alongside drug therapies in patients with DRE who have partial-onset seizures. This treatment has been available since 1997 and has been shown in clinical trials to be effective at reducing the number of seizures for some patients. However, the up-front costs for placing the device along with additional costs for ongoing monitoring are higher than those for drugs alone.
Researchers at RTI Health Solutions and LivaNova, PLC conducted a study to understand the long-term significance of these costs for patients using VNS therapy. The team developed an economic model to compare the expected costs and health outcomes for patients who use VNS in addition to AEDs versus those taking AEDs alone in the US. Molly Purser, PhD, Associate Director of Health Economics at RTI-HS and lead author of the paper reports, “We found that by reducing seizure frequency, the cost of the device, including surgery to place it, is offset in approximately 1.7 years.” The paper concludes that expanded use of VNS is likely to result in improved health outcomes, lower health care resource utilization, and lower costs over a relatively short time period. VNS, a proven intervention, can be a cost-effective, long-term solution for people with drug-resistant epilepsy.
Read the full text of this Advances in Therapy article:
Purser MF, Mladsi DM, Beckman A, Barion F, Forsey J. Expected budget impact and health outcomes of expanded use of vagus nerve stimulation therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy. Adv Ther. 2018 Aug 24. doi: 10.1007/s12325-018-0775-0.