Cost-effectiveness of duodenal ulcer treatment

Abstract

This study compares the costs of treating duodenal ulcer disease by a drug regimen and surgery. While a final assessment of the relative advantages of one treatment against the other depends upon the outcome of long term epidemiological study of the history of the disease with interventions of various kinds, provisional results indicate that relative costliness per case depends mainly on the scope of the costs considered (e.g. institutional or social) and on the rate of discount: taking account of social costs and using the Treasury's public sector discount rate, the use of drugs in suitable cases appears less costly.