Abstract

Background: Lung transplantation is one of the most complicated medical procedures. The aim of the present study is to report the average cost of lung transplantation in Iran.
Material/Methods: We reviewed the hospital data of all lung transplantations performed in Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 2000 to 2008 and extracted information on the costs for hospitalization for the transplantation surgery. We excluded the patients who died shortly after the transplantation surgery.We then categorized the costs into seven distinct groups: accommodations, personnel, medication, paraclinics, supplies, procedures and other costs. Data was primarily extracted based on Iranian national currency (Rials) and then converted to US dollar (10,000 Rials = 1$). The mean of the costs are reported for each category.
Results: The mean total cost of lung transplantation was 13,801.6±7,752.3 USD (range: 6,104.9 to 26,888.7). This cost was related to the specified categories as followed: Expenditure tools = 35.55%, medications = 34.46%, personnel cost = 10.14%, accommodations = 8.14%, procedures = 5.66%, paraclinics = 5.49%, other costs = 0.56%.
Conclusions: The cost of lung transplantation is high. This could be due to the complexity of the procedure, the large number of specialists involved, long duration of hospital stay and high rate of complications that might occur following the surgery. The results of the present study also showed that the cost of lung transplantation in Iran is far below the reported costs from other countries.

Keywords: Lung Transplantation, costs, Developing Countries