Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) represents a new treatment option for aortic stenosis. This study aimed to evaluate the cost utility of TAVI, compared with clinical treatment, in patients with inoperable severe aortic stenosis from the perspective of the Brazilian public health system.

A Markov model with monthly cycles and a five percent annual discount rate was constructed. A five-year time horizon was chosen, to minimize the uncertainties inherent with data extrapolations, based on the only randomized head-to-head trial, Placement of AoRTic TraNscathetER Valve Trial (PARTNER B). All costs were obtained from Brazil's official healthcare data. Utilities for clinical treatment 0.6 (range 0.56–0.63) and TAVI 0.71 (range 0.69–0.72) were based on studies that used the EuroQol-5D instrument. TAVI's utility measures were penalized by 25 percent in the first month, based on the estimate of the procedure's impact on quality of life provided by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom. Lastly, deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were used to evaluate the robustness of the results.

The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was USD35,880 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY), a result that was mainly sensitive to TAVI's cost in the univariate analysis. In the probabilistic analysis, all values were above the reference willingness-to-pay threshold of three times the Brazilian per capita gross domestic product (USD18,042 per QALY).

In conclusion, even though there is no established willingness-to-pay threshold in Brazil, the cost of TAVI may represent an obstacle for its incorporation into the Brazilian public health system.