Cost-minimisation analysis of endometrial thermal ablation in a day case or outpatient setting under different anaesthesia regimens.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost difference between a daycase endometrial thermal ablation performed under general anaesthesia and an outpatient endometrial ablation using local anaesthetic. STUDY DESIGN Calculations using real reported resource use in 20 daycase procedures and 16 outpatient procedures. RESULTS The costs were 1865 euros for daycase procedure versus 1065 euros for outpatient procedure. CONCLUSION The cost of endometrial thermal ablation can be considerably minimised by taking the procedure out of the theatre and performing it under local anaesthetic instead of general anaesthesia. This setting makes endometrial thermal ablation cost-effective.