Saluda Medical has announced the publication of new health economic data in the Clinical Journal of Pain that provides “the strongest ever economic case” for the use of its Evoke closed-loop spinal cord stimulation (SCS) with physiologic SmartLoop technology over open-loop SCS therapy, as per a company press release.
The analysis sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of using the Evoke system over open-loop SCS for the treatment of chronic intractable pain by examining the costs and outcomes associated with each therapy. Results from the analysis indicate that the Evoke system becomes cost-dominant at five years in the base-case analysis and dominant at as early as two years post-implant in a scenario analysis.
The analysis was based on results from the EVOKE study, which demonstrated the highest reported outcomes in SCS at 36 months with zero explants due to loss of efficacy for patients who received closed-loop therapy, according to Saluda. It considered certain costs relating to device list prices and healthcare use for responders, high-responders, and non-responders, as well as explants due to loss of efficacy.
“This new analysis reinforces the economic case for utilising devices which have demonstrated long-term therapy durability,” said Corey Hunter (Ainsworth Institute of Pain Management, New York City, USA). “Cost-dominance over another therapy at two years is exceedingly rare in medicine, and this reported dominance of the Evoke system over open-loop SCS should have a profound impact on patients, payers, and hospital systems, as they continue to prioritise increased clinical utility at a lower cost.”
