Medical Therapy for GERD Is More Effective and Less Expensive Than Surgery

The optimal long-term treatment strategy for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is hotly debated by surgeons and gastroenterologists. Results from a previous cost-effectiveness analysis (Gastroenterology 1997; 112:1078) suggested that medical therapy was less expensive and as effective as antireflux surgery at 5 years; at 10 years, costs were the same. However, in that analysis, estimates of medication use and quality-of-life effects were derived by consensus expert opinion rather than from clinical studies. Now, researchers used data from recent clinical studies to reevaluate the cost-effectiveness of surgical versus medical therapy in patients with GERD.

Data for probability estimates of total costs and quality-adjusted l…