Can Robot-Assisted Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty Be Cost-Effective? A Markov Decision Analysis

BackgroundUnicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is a treatment option for single-compartment knee osteoarthritis. Robotic assistance may improve survival rates of UKA, but the cost-effectiveness of robot-assisted UKA is unknown. The purpose of this study was to delineate the revision rate, hospital volume, and robotic system costs for which this technology would be cost-effective.MethodsWe created a Markov decision analysis to evaluate the costs, outcomes, and incremental cost-effectiveness of robot-assisted UKA in 64-year-old patients with end-stage unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis.ResultsRobot-assisted UKA was more costly than traditional UKA, but offered a slightly better outcome with 0.06 additional quality-adjusted life-years at an incremental cost of $47,180 per quality-adjusted life-years, given a case volume of 100 cases annually. The system was cost-effective when case volume exceeded 94 cases per year, 2-year failure rates were below 1.2%, and total system costs were <$1.426 million.ConclusionRobot-assisted UKA is cost-effective compared with traditional UKA when annual case volume exceeds 94 cases per year. It is not cost-effective at low-volume or medium-volume arthroplasty centers.