Cost identification analysis of general anaesthesia

With the introduction of new andadvanced techniques, the healthcare costs have also increased progressively.Limited budget allocation for health in developing nations makes it difficultto embrace these advancements. One of the major expenditures in a hospital hasbeen attributed to anaestheticprocedures. It thus becomes challenging for the anesthesiologist touse newer techniques that help maintain the standards of patient safety yet arecost effective in routine use.

The market for surgery and anaesthesia does not followconventional supply/ demand and cost/quality equilibrium laws**.** This isknown as market failure, a situation that calls for special strategies forcontrolling costs and assessing tradeoffs. This has led to workforce modifications to determine if clinical practice is associated with bestoutcome result at a reasonable cost – a concept termed value based anaesthesiacare.

In economic terms, it can be evaluated by costidentification (minimization) analysis which involves comparison of acquisitioncosts of various anaesthesia techniques (is least expensive) providing thedesired outcome.

Another method of minimizing costs is to reducewastage, that is, drug is loaded but not used for the patient and is discardedat the end of the procedure. Studies illustrate that using drugs judiciouslywill eventually reduce costs but fail to elucidate the techniquesassociated with less wastage.

Although studies have compared different anaesthetic techniques(eg spinal vs general anaesthesia) for a particular surgery withrespect to their cost efficacy, patient safety and side effects, or twodifferent general anaesthetic techniques (high flow and low flow inhalationalanaesthesia with one agent or low flow anaesthesia with totalintravenous anaesthesia), a comprehensive analysis of costidentification for general anaesthesia is lacking.