Cost-effectiveness of saline-assisted hysterosonography and office hysteroscopy in the evaluation of postmenopausal bleeding: A decision analysis

Rationale and Objectives. The authors performed this study to evaluate whet her hysterosonography (HSG) is a more cost-effective initial diagnostic exa mination than office hysteroscopy in the evaluation of postmenopausal bleed ing (PMB). Materials and Methods. A computer model simulated the diagnosis and treatme nt of PMB in otherwise healthy women. The hypothetical patient who had one episode of PMB precipitating a clinic visit would undergo either HSG or off ice hysteroscopy as the initial examination. Algorithms were designed such that a finite number of false-negative and false-positive findings would be expected, and clinical decision making would rely on the reported results. Performance characteristics for diagnostic tests and other clinical probab ilities were taken from the literature. Costs were based on actual 1997 Med icare reimbursements. The primary clinical outcome considered was the corre ct diagnosis of any anatomic abnormality that was amenable to definitive tr eatment. The primary cost outcome considered was the cost per abnormality d etected. Sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of varyin g performance characteristics for diagnostic techniques. Results. HSG and office hysteroscopy correctly depicted 68.1 and 67.6 anato mic abnormalities per 100 patients, respectively. The average cost per abno rmality detected was $7,978 with HSG and $8,400 with office hysteroscopy. Conclusion. HSG depicted more abnormalities at a lower cost per abnormality , which suggests that it should be the preferred initial diagnostic examina tion in the setting of PMB.