A Systematic Review of the Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions for Chronic Wounds.

Chronic wounds present a significant challenge to society and have a negative impact on the quality of life and daily activities of patients. This review aimed to identify the cost-effectiveness of the currently used care alternatives for the treatment of chronic wounds. This study serves to identify cost-effectiveness boundaries and provide a basis for determining the cost-effectiveness of the proposed care alternatives. A systematic literature search was conducted in compliance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Articles published on Web of Science and PubMed from June 2013 to June 2023 were included. A comparative analysis was performed using the data adjusted for inflation and transformed for the same time horizon. The median time to heal was approximately 2. 5 months in the first quartile of studies ending at 1. 3 months and the third quartile ending at 3. 7 months. The average cost of complete chronic wound healing for all care alternatives in the study sample was 6435, with a median cost of 5814. This systematic review covers a diverse range of treatment alternatives, their health effects and costs and highlights the complex landscape of cost-effectiveness in the treatment of chronic wounds. Trial Registration: PROSPERO database under registration number: CRD42023434074.