Retrospective economic evaluation of a controlled trial of indomethacin prophylaxis for patent ductus arteriosus in premature infants John A.F. Zupancic a,b, * , Douglas K. Richardson a,b,F , Bernie J. O’Brien c,F , Catherine G. Cronin d , Barbara Schmidt c,e , Robin Roberts c , Milton C. Weinstein f Trial of Indomethacin Prophylaxis in Preterms Investigators a Department of Neonatology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States b Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States c Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada d Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada e Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada f Center for Risk Analysis, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Abstract Objective: To determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of indomethacin prophylaxis in extremely low birth weight infants enrolled in the Trial of Indomethacin Prophylaxis in Preterms (TIPP). Study design: Participants in this economic evaluation were 428 infants enrolled at 9 Canadian TIPP centres. The study took a third-party payer perspective. Prior to the analysis of clinical trial data, direct medical costs were derived from chart review of 89 items of resource utilization, for each day from admission to hospital discharge. Unit costs for each resource were obtained from a provincially standardized cost-accounting system. Incremental cost-effective- ness analysis was performed, with estimation of cost-effectiveness acceptability curves through non-parametric bootstrapping. 0378-3782/$ - see front matter D 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2006.01.004 * Corresponding author. Department of Neonatology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Rose Building Room 318, Boston, MA 02215, United States. Tel.: +1 617 667 3276; fax: +1 617 667 7040. E-mail address: jzupanci@caregroup.harvard.edu (J.A.F. Zupancic). F Deceased. KEYWORDS Economics; Resource utilization; Infant, newborn; Costs and cost analysis; Controlled clinical trials Early Human Development (2006) 82, 97—103 available at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/earlhumdev