Comparison of treatment costs of plasma knife tonsillectomy with conventional tonsillectomy at Ho Chi Minh City Otolaryngology Hospital, 2020

Objective: Tonsillitis is one of the common diseases in children and adults. Tonsillectomy is one of the most popular surgeries performed by ear-nose-throat doctors in the world as well as in Vietnam. Currently, in Vietnam, there is no scientific study evaluating the costs (include treatment cost, non-medical cost and direct cost) of 2 methods of tonsillectomy with Plasma knife and conventional tonsillectomy. Compare the treatment costs of Plasma knife tonsillectomy with conventional tonsillectomy at Ho Chi Minh City Otolaryngology Hospital in 2020 by descriptive cross-sectional method. Methods: Crossectional study with 100 patients with plasma knife tonsillectomy and 36 patients with conventional tonsillectomy Result: The results show that the average cost of a tonsillectomy with a Plasma knife is 17,695,000 ± 6,690,000 VND, the average cost of a conventional method is 21,413,000 ± 7,901,000 VND. The plasma knife tonsillectomy method has a lower total cost than the conventional method and is statistically significant with p < 0.05. The average cost saved when choosing the plasma cutting method instead of the convention is 3,178,000 VND. Although the direct cost of treatment in the Plasma group is higher than that of the conventional group, the direct costs not for treatment such as travel and meals, indirect costs of lost income of patients and caregivers lower. Because the number of days off due to surgery of the Plasma group is 6.54 ± 3.51, lower than the conventional group 8.14 ± 2.32 days Conclusion: The hospital needs to advise patients on issues of expenses through seminars, scientific reports and on the hospital's media: website, facebook, Fanpage. Keywords: Cost, tonsillectomy, plasma knife, conventional tonsillectomy, Ho Chi Minh City Otolaryngology Hospital.