In Australia, approximately 200,000 patients have a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED), and in an aging population that number is rising. CIED-related infections are also increasing, causing considerable morbidity and mortality, and substantial healthcare costs. Internationally, the rate of CIED infection ranges from 1.0 percent to 1.6 percent, while in Australia, the reported range is from less than 1 percent to 7.0 percent. The average hospital cost to treat an infection in the US ranges between USD48,000–USD83,000. To date, few publications have estimated the cost of CIED infections in Australia. Critical appraisal of these studies has highlighted issues in their methodology, making them unreliable sources for use in economic evaluations. The purpose of this study was to utilize Australian routinely collected health data to robustly model costs of CIED infections to reduce uncertainty for future health technology assessment (HTA).

The cost of treating a CIED infection was modeled for the public and private sector including cost of system removal and re-implantation procedures, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and outpatient follow-up. Cost inputs were obtained from the Australian Prostheses List, Medicare Benefits Schedule, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and Private Hospital Data Bureau. Other inputs were obtained by surveying Australian clinicians, which were validated with published data. Phone interviews and online surveys were conducted with clinicians to elicit specific Australian practice pathways for patients with a CIED infection.

The majority of patients with a CIED have their device system removed (95-100%) and re-implanted (83%) once the infection has cleared. In the private sector, cost of infection ranged from AUD80,869 (USD54,384) for a single chamber pacemaker (PM), to AUD140,103 (USD94,248) for a dual chamber Implantable Cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Modeled costs of CIED infection were slightly lower in the public sector (AUD73,643-AUD88,446 (USD49,555 – USD59,516) for the same devices).

The cost of a CIED infections to the healthcare system is high and differs by device type. Utilizing local real-world data to estimate costs will improve accuracy of economic evaluations and reduce uncertainty for decision makers.