Abstract
Background: Surgical care is often regarded as too expensive and complex for people in poor countries and so has long been neglected.
Objective: We demonstrated that the cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) saved of reconstructive surgery in Cambodia is competitive with many basic public health interventions.
Methods: The Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) in Phnom Penh provides orthopedic, plastic, ophthalmological, and general reconstructive surgical services free to disabled people in Cambodia. Following standard guidelines for calculating operation costs and assigning disability weights we calculated the cost effectiveness of surgical treatment for 343 patients treated at CSC in January and March, 2012.
Results: Our data for these two months yielded 1785 DALYs averted and operating costs totaling $164,543; resulting in $99 per DALY averted.
Conclusion: Reconstructive surgery is cost effective compared to other basic public health interventions and should not be neglected when designing integrated health care services in a developing country.