Benefits and costs of recombinant human erythropoietin for end-stage renal failure: a review. Benefits and costs of erythropoietin.

Recombinant human erythropoietin is an efficacious therapy in treatment of the anemia of end-stage renal failure. However, the scale of impact on quality of life and medical care resources remains uncertain. By reviewing the literature we evaluate cost-effectiveness of recombinant human erythropoietin and show how previous studies may have implicitly overestimated cost-effectiveness.