Treatment of patients with severe burns-costs and health-related quality of life outcome.

To study the effectiveness of the treatment of patients with severe burns, the authors collected health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data with the 15D instrument, 17 to 29 months after treatment had commenced at the national burns unit. The costs of each patient's secondary care treatment were followed for a mean of 66 months. During the 1-year study period, 107 patients were treated at the burns unit, eight for scar surgery, the remainder for primary treatment of a burn injury; 19 had died or could not be located during the time of the HRQoL survey. Of the remaining 88 patients, 43 (49%; mean [SD] age 45.7 [14.8] years; 70% men) returned the questionnaire. Their mean (SD) HRQoL score (0.909[0.113]) was only slightly, and not significantly, lower than that of the age- and sex- standardized general population (0.928[0.080]). The mean (SD) secondary care cost of burn treatment of for all the 107 patients, over the 60- to 72-month observation time, was 42,838 USD (73,569 USD; range 1319-34,8741 USD). The largest portion of the total cost was because of inpatient treatment (61%) followed by operations (22%), and outpatient visits. In addition to the costs of burns treatment, the patients consumed other secondary care services to a value of nearly 12,229 USD. The HRQoL in patients treated for severe burns is good, thus the observed high-treatment costs can be considered acceptable.