Cost-Effectiveness of Surgery Versus Functional Bracing for Humeral Shaft Fractures in Adults

BACKGROUND: Humeral shaft fractures commonly affect working-age adults and can lead to prolonged work absence and substantial economic burden. Although surgical fixation and functional bracing offer comparable functional outcomes, their relative cost-effectiveness remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a prespecified economic evaluation alongside a multicenter, superiority, randomized clinical trial at 2 Finnish university hospitals between 2012 and 2018. Eighty-two adults (mean age, 48.9 years; 38 women) with displaced, closed humeral shaft fractures were randomly assigned to surgical fixation (n = 38) or functional bracing (n = 44) and followed for 2 years. The primary outcome was the incremental net monetary benefit (INMB) based on quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) measured with the 15-dimensional (15D) instrument, analyzed from both societal and health-care perspectives. RESULTS: From a societal perspective, surgical treatment was both more effective and less costly than bracing. The mean total cost per patient was €23,680 for surgery and €30,389 for bracing, yielding an INMB of €9,423 (95% confidence interval [CI], €4,139 to €14,609). Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves showed that surgery was highly likely to be cost-effective across all willingness-to-pay thresholds up to €120,000 per QALY. The cumulative QALYs from 6 weeks to 2 years post-injury were 1.776 (95% CI, 1.725 to 1.827) for surgery and 1.705 (95% CI, 1.641 to 1.769) for bracing, corresponding to a QALY difference of 0.071 (95% CI, 0.012 to 0.130) in favor of surgery. From the health-care perspective, functional bracing was less costly (€4,904 versus €10,967) and therefore more cost-effective, with an INMB of -€4,087 (95% CI, -€5,215 to -€3,054). When considering only direct medical costs, surgery was unlikely to be cost-effective at thresholds below €80,000 per QALY, reaching a 75% probability of cost-effectiveness only at €120,000 per QALY. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery is cost-effective when societal costs are considered. Functional bracing remains a reasonable option, particularly for patients less affected by time away from work. Shared decision-making should incorporate both economic and individual patient factors. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Economic Level I . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.