Evaluation of clinical pathway in the therapeutic treatment hepatic alveolar echinococcosis

Objective To evaluate the effect of clinical pathway (CP) in the therapeutic treatment hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE). Methods The clinical data were analyzed retrospectively, including 84 patients in CP group and 86 patients in non-CP group. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS 19.0 software. Measurement data were expressed as mean±standard deviation and were examined by independent t test. Count data such as the incidence of postoperative complications were described by (n, %) and were examined by chi square test. The correlation between predicted resected liver volume and actual resected liver volume were also analyzed. A P value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results The hospitalization time of (10.9±1.3) d and hospitalization expenses of (35±3) thousand yuan in the CP group were significantly lower than (14.1±1.2) d and (38±4) thousand yuan in the non-CP group respectively, P 0.05). Conclusion Implementing the clinical pathway of HAE could effectively shorten the hospitalization time, reduce the cost of treatment as well as the economic burden of patients, and has a positive effect on improving patient satisfaction and popularizing the health knowledge of echinococcosis. It is worthy of clinical application and promotion, but the incidence of mutations in the clinical pathway is high, requiring timely intervention and continuous optimization management for clinical use. Key words: Echinococcosis, hepatic; Critical pathways; Variation