Gylfi Olafsson

Westfjords Healthcare Institute

Purpose To estimate the societal costs of low back pain with/without radiating leg pain (LBP). LBP is a major burden in terms of both personal suffering and societal costs. Methods Patients visiting healthcare providers with a LBP-diagnosis in the Western region of Sweden (Västra Götaland) in 2008–2011 were identified in national registers and an...

Aims: To develop a health economic model to evaluate the long-term costs and outcomes over the healthcare treatment pathway for patients with low back pain (LBP) Material and methods: A health economic model, consisting of a decision tree structure with a Markov microsimulation model at the end of each branch, was created. Patients were followed f...

Study Design Analysis of Swedish national and regional register data. Objectives The aim of this study was to characterize healthcare resource utilization, productivity loss, and costs of patients with low back pain (LBP) with or without leg pain, who have been referred from primary care settings to orthopedic specialist care. Summary of Backgrou...

Background The efficacy of fusion surgery in addition to decompression surgery in patients who have lumbar spinal stenosis, with or without degenerative spondylolisthesis, has not been substantiated in controlled trials. Methods We randomly assigned 247 patients between 50 and 80 years of age who had lumbar spinal stenosis at one or two adjacent v...

We reviewed all peer-reviewed papers analysing the cost-effectiveness of vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. In general, the procedures appear to be cost effective but are very dependent upon model input details. Better data, rather than new models, are needed to answer outstanding questions. Ver...

Study design: Randomized clinical trial with 2-year follow-up. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of total disc replacement (TDR) versus multidisciplinary rehabilitation (MDR) in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Summary of background data: The existing studies on CLBP report cost-effectiveness of fusion surgery versus dis...

This study uses data from a previously published randomised trial where balloon kyphoplasty was compared to non-surgical management. Of the improved overall quality of life, 60 % was caused by decreased pain. However, ignoring other dimensions of quality of life would underestimate the procedure’s effect. Introduction Acute back pain has been viewe...

Background context The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health mandated a nationwide HTA-registry for balloon kyphoplasty (BKP) for decision making on reimbursement of these interventions. The early results of the registry led to a permanent coverage of BKP by basic health insurance. The documentation was continued for further evidence generation. P...