OBJECTIVETo perform a pharmacoeconomic evaluation of the efficacies of therapeutic schemes involving four hepatoprotective drugs for the treatment of drug-induced liver injury (DILI).

METHODSThe principle of decision tree analysis in pharmacoeconomics was applied to perform a retrospective analysis using a meta-analyses approach to evaluate the data from randomized controlled trials of four common therapeutic schemes.The key parameters for evaluating efficacy and safety of each were identified by searching the official data, relevant literature and expert opinions, and included the parameters of consumption and unit cost with respect to a variety of health resources.

RESULTSThe hepatoprotective drug showing the greatest efficacy (4.5118) and safety for treating DILI was bicyclol; this drug also had a lower incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER; 245.0118) than the other three therapeutic schemes.The tioproninenteric-coated tablet had the lowest cost (296.9536) among the four, but also had the worst efficacy (4.1352). Bicyclol had the lowest cost/benefit ratio (5.32) and ICER (4.93) among all the therapeutic schemes evaluated.Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these results.

CONCLUSIONAccording to this pharmacoeconomic evaluation, the bicyclol therapeutic strategy is the most cost-effective choice for DILI.