What is the clinical and cost effectiveness of oral, subcutaneous and intravenous diuretic therapy in people with advanced heart failure in the community?
No previously published economic evaluations were identified. Unit costs were not presented for this review due to the lack of clinical evidence available for the committee to make a judgement of cost effectiveness of the routes of administration of diuretics. However, the committee noted that delivering diuretics subcutaneously and intravenously would incur a higher cost to the NHS compared to administering oral diuretics due to the additional equipment and staff costs of delivery The committee agreed that due to the greater cost of subcutaneous and IV diuretics therapy compared to oral diuretics, it was important that an assessment of the cost effectiveness of these different administration routes was included in the research recommendation.