Cost evaluation of corneal ulcer treatment.

BACKGROUND

Corneal ulcer is a common disease. To find the costs of corneal ulcer treatment would help plan the treatment strategy.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the cost of treatment for corneal ulcers.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: Age, gender type of payment, causative organism, hospitalization days, and cost of treatment of hospitalized patients with clinically diagnosed corneal ulcer presenting between January 2011 andApril 2012 was collected

RESULTS

Fifty-three patients were analyzed The median cost (interquartile range) was 20,699.0 (11,379.0-56,981.0) Thai Baht. The median cost (interquartile range) for the fungal group, bacterial group, and unknown organisms was 70,040.0 (34,697.0-112,118), 17,881.5 (10,555.3-31,100.8), and 15,015.3 (9,542.3-46,866.6) Thai Baht respectively. Costoftreatment for fungal group was statistically significantly higher than for the unknown organisms and bacterial groups (p< O. 05).

CONCLUSION

The expense of corneal ulcer treatment is high and fungal infection treatment tends to be the most expensive.