ABSTRACT
Results indicated that the cost of care for I 00 patients with Kawasaki disease would be reduced by $323,400 (approximately $32,000 per patient) if the high-dose IVIG option was utilized instead of aspirin alone, due to the 14 cases of coronary anery abnormalities prevented. High-dose IVIG was superior to the low-dose option by about $118,000 (or approximately $12,000 per patient) because of the average reduction of two cases of aneurysm. However, the authors pointed out that the high-dose regimen could be more expensive than the low-dose (by $8500/100 patients) if patients in both groups were hospitalized for 5 days. They viewed this not to be a likely circumstance, given the reduced morbidity in the IVIG treatment groups.
