Clinical and economic burden of benign and malignant skin lesions in renal transplant recipients

Background: Studies evaluating the economic burden of dermatological care in the transplant setting are currently not available in Australia. Aims: To evaluate the clinical and economic burden of benign and malignant skin lesions in renal transplant recipients in Central Queensland. Methods: A bottom-up approach was used to determine the clinical burden and direct costs from patient-level Medicare data obtained from Service Australia for skin lesions. Results: Seventy-six percent of the renal transplant population in Central Queensland participated in this study. The median age was 57.0 years (standard deviation ± 13.6) and the majority (61.8%) of participants were men. The mean duration after transplant surgery was 99.9 months (interquartile range, 73.2–126.6 months). During a 2-year follow-up, 22 (40%) patients were diagnosed with benign skin lesions, 21 (38%) with nonmelanoma skin carcinoma (NMSC) and one (2%) with melanoma. There was a total of 231 visits to clinicians for diagnostic and therapeutic skin procedures and the direct costs to Medicare was $48 806 Australian Dollars (AUD) or $30 427 US Dollars (USD). Approximately 86% of the total direct costs was spent for nonNMSC and mean direct costs for NMSC was $763 AUD (or $476 USD). Conclusion: This Medicare data-based study provides further insight into the burgeoning clinical and economic burden of the care for benign and malignant skin lesions in the renal transplantation setting in Australia.