Clinical and economic benefits of patients undergoing lobectomy with the use of powered vascular staplers—based on China’s real-world data

Endoscopic surgery is widely performed with an increasing use of powered vascular staplers (PVS). However, few studies have examined PVS use in China, most of which have focused on clinical effects; fewer studies have examined the economic benefits of PVS. This study evaluated the clinical and economic benefits of the PVS compared to standard-of-care (SOC) staplers in lobectomy using results from a single-arm, multicenter clinical trial conducted in China and actual clinical use in a hospital collected in a real healthcare setting. Patients with lung cancer undergoing thoracoscopic lobectomy were included in the study. The clinical and economic benefits of powered vascular stapler have been evaluated from a hospital’s perspective based on parameters such as bleeding occurrence, hospitalization time, secondary thoracotomy, and hospitalization costs. To compare the bleeding associated with use of PVS and SOC stapler in clinical use, PVS single-arm multi-center clinical trial data is used for the intervention group, and sampling data from hospitals is used for the control group. To ensure the outcome indicators between the two groups are comparable, we set the same inclusion criteria for the two groups of data and then used propensity score matching (PSM) to match two groups of patients according to the baseline characteristics. The results show that bleeding incidence in patients with SOC stapler group is 17.33% from hospital sampling data. In contrast, in the PVS group, it is 4.00%, and these rates are statistically different (P = 0.0167). Considering converted to open thoracic surgery, the rate of the SOC stapler group is 5.78% and that of the PVS group is 4.00%. These rates are not statistically different (P = 0.6166). Regarding hospitalization days, the length of the SOC stapler group is 18.97 days, while that in the PVS group is 12.38 days, and these data are statistically different (P = 0.0002). As patients in the PVS group have reduced bleeding, they will require less resource use from blood transfusion, drug services and surgical services. If PVS is used for transection of vessel, it can reduce the bleeding incidence by 13.33% and save 75.47 CNY in blood transfusion costs, 571.36 CNY in drug costs, and 183.38 CNY in surgical service costs per patient. From these three aspects, the hospital saves per patient 830.21 CNY. Compared with the SOC stapler group, the PVS group has a lower bleeding incidence and shorter hospital days for lobectomy. In terms of blood transfusion costs, drug costs and surgical service costs, the hospital saves per patient 830.21 CNY.