An economic evaluation of resuscitation in sepsis

The treatment of patients with sepsis is complex, challenging and expensive. When deciding what treatments to use, it is essential to consider both effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Economic evaluations can be used to determine the value for money of different treatments, however their use in critical care settings is limited. This thesis aimed to understand the role of economic evaluations in critical care, document the existing literature on cost-effectiveness for sepsis treatments, determine the effect of a sepsis intervention, early goal-directed therapy, compared to usual care on the long term outcomes of patients and determine the cost-effectiveness of early goal-directed therapy.