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.