[Costs of care in uremia. How much does kidney transplantation cost?].
The cost of kidney transplantation and hemodialysis have been recorded (in 1986). Tissue typing, operation and initial stay in hospital cost NOK 103,000 per patient, and further treatment for the first year after operation NOK 114,000. Subsequent annual costs were NOK 70,000, mainly for drugs. Hemodialysis costs NOK 287,000 per year. Transplantation was cost-effective by almost NOK one million per patient over a five-year period. If the current high national rate of transplantation (42 patients per million), which keeps both the national waiting list (23 patients per million) and the dialysis population at a low level, is sustained over the next five years, then total national expenditures for dialysis and transplantation are predicted to be approx. NOK 400 millions. If no transplants were performed during this period the waiting list would increase to 175 patients per million, and expenditures (for dialysis) to approx. NOK 750 millions. Additional huge investments would be needed in order to expand the facilities for dialysis. Because of high transplant rate, only 18 per cent of all treated uremics in Norway are now on dialysis, versus 73 per cent in Western Europe. Since transplantation is much cheaper than dialysis, national expenditures per treated patient are lower in Norway than in any other country.