Cost–benefit assessment of inferior vena cava filter placement in advanced cancer patients

We retrospectively collected data recorded between 1994 and 2000, with the aim of evaluating the cost and benefits of IVCFP (inferior vena cava filter placement) in advanced cancer patients treated in our institution alone from the radio-diagnosis department's point of view. A total of 30 procedures were performed. The benefits were represented by the efficacy and the safety of the filter. The costing procedure consisted in multiplying the value of the unit index by the number of relative complexity indices. Eighty percent (24/30) of the patients were dead at the time of the study. Twenty percent (6/30) of the patients died before even being discharged from hospital. Three of them died from renal failure, owing to complete renal vein thrombosis (n=2) or hydronephrosis (n=1), and 1 from pulmonary embolism because it was exceptionally severe; the other 2 patients were cachectic, i.e., in poor general condition. The individual cost of the procedures represented only 2% of the mean entire cost of hospitalization. Seventy-six percent, 56% and 40% of the patients, were still alive at 1 month; 3 months and 6 months, respectively, with an improved quality of survival in at least 53% of the patients. The low complication rate and the low cost relative to the mean cost of hospitalization (2%) are factors in favor of using IVCFP if it is medically indicated.