BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1606589
Cost-Analysis of Universal Decolonization with Pure Hypochlorous Acid and Mupirocin to Reduce MRSA Infections in Burn Intensive Care Unit Patients
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xavier University, Cincinnati, United States
- 2Urgo Medical North America, Dallas, United States
- 3Arizona Burn Center, Valleywise Health, Phoenix, United States
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Burn patients are at high risk for infections, particularly Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Universal decolonization strategies have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing infection rates. This study aimed to evaluate the cost implications of using pure hypochlorous acid (pHA) and mupirocin to prevent MRSA infections in hospitalized burn patients.A patient-level microsimulation model was developed to perform a cost analysis from the US health system perspective. Clinical inputs were derived from a retrospective observational study.The primary outcome was the reduction in MRSA infections per 1,000 bed days. Cost estimates, expressed in 2023 US dollars, were gathered through a pragmatic literature review of publicly available sources. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the findings.Before the introduction of pHA, burn patients were 3.05 times more likely to develop MRSA infections. The estimated cost of treating MRSA infections was $224,376 per 1,000 bed days in the pre-pHA period, compared to $148,812 in the post-pHA period. After including the cost of pHA, the net savings amounted to $75,564 per 1,000 bed days, or $75.56 per bed day. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the stability of these results across a range of input values.The combination of pHA and mupirocin appears to be a cost-saving strategy for reducing MRSA infections among hospitalized burn patients.
Keywords: cost-analysis, MRSA, Burns, PHA, Infections
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mallow, Chakravarthy and Foster. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peter J Mallow, Xavier University, Cincinnati, United States
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