Decompression Surgery

The Cost Perspective

From the guideline commentary:

A study comparing 170 surgical patients with 264 conservative treatment patients found that the average cost was actually higher in the conservative treatment group. The reasons:

• A significant proportion required multiple epidural injections
• 72.4% of conservative treatment patients eventually crossed over to surgery

While a single successful injection was the most cost-effective approach, patients who required multiple injections ended up costing more than a properly performed decompression surgery. In other words, continuing ineffective conservative treatment indefinitely is not only burdensome for patients — it is also not cost-effective.