Estimated direct and indirect health care costs of severe infectious keratitis by cultured organisms in Thailand: An 8-year retrospective study

PURPOSE: To evaluate the economic impact of treating severe infectious keratitis (IK) at one tertiary referral center in Thailand by analyzing the direct costs of treatment and estimating the indirect costs, and to determine whether cultured organisms had any effect on treatment expenditure. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted of patients with severe IK who had been hospitalized between January 2014 and December 2021 in Rajavithi Hospital. Data from medical records were collected from the time of the patients’ admission until the point at which they were discharged and treated in the outpatient department and their IK was completely healed, or until evisceration/enucleation was performed. The direct costs of treatment included fees for services, medical professionals and investigation, as well as for operative and non-operative treatment. The indirect costs consisted of patients’ loss of wages, and costs of travel and food. RESULTS: A total of 335 patients were studied. The median direct, indirect and total costs were US$65.2, range US$ 6.5–1,119.1, US$314.5, range US$50.8–1,067.5, and US$426.1, range 57.5–1,971.5 respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between direct, indirect, or total treatment costs for culture-negative and culture-positive patients. Among those who were positive, fungal infections entailed the highest total cost of treatment, and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). In terms of direct and indirect costs, patients with fungal infections had the greatest direct costs, and this figure was statistically significant (p = 0.001); however, those with parasitic infections had the highest indirect treatment costs, and this was also statistically significant (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Severe IK can cause serious vision impairment or blindness. Indirect costs represented the majority of the expense at 73.8%. There was no difference between direct, indirect, and total treatment costs for patients who were culture-negative or positive. Among the latter, fungal infections resulted in the highest total cost of treatment.