Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a debilitating, chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by painful nodules and abscesses. HS has a strong impact on patient quality of life. In Brazil, the prevalence of HS is estimated at 0.4 percent. Medical and surgical treatments have low effectiveness and disease recurrence is common, which affects health system costs. This study aimed to assess how HS patients utilize medical care (emergency and inpatient care) in Brazil and to describe the all-cause costs.

Data were retrieved from a public healthcare claims database (DATASUS), which provides access to information regarding health services and costs. Data from DATASUS were used to perform a cost-identification analysis on patients with HS who used health services over a two-year period. A retrospective bottom-up approach was used to estimate direct costs, multiplying the amount of each medical resource consumed by its unit cost.

Over the two-year period, 90 patients (16%) with HS received inpatient care (151 procedures) at a total cost of BRL 83,520 (USD 21,715). Surgeries were the most frequently performed (73% of total) and expensive procedures, costing BRL 73,122 (USD 19,011; 88% of total costs), followed by clinical treatments (BRL 8,354 [USD 2,172]; 10%), and physician consulting (BRL 1,659 [USD 431]; 2%). For the 500 patients treated in the emergency department (total cost BRL 3,027 [USD 787]), the most frequently received services were physician consulting (34%), nursing care (12%), and minor surgeries (11%). Each patient received, on average, three procedures over the two-year period.

HS is a high-burden disease, as demonstrated by the high healthcare resource utilization among patients. Since DATASUS is a public database, the costs presented reflect a government reference price and do not consider local costs, which is a limitation of this study. Health managers should be aware of this finding, although further research is needed to investigate the effect of healthcare utilization on patient outcomes.