A systematic review on the burden of illness in individuals with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)

  • Objective: This review will summarize current knowledge on the burden of illness (BOI) in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a multisystem genetic disorder manifesting with hamartomas throughout the body, including mainly the kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, heart, and lungs. Methods: We performed a systematic analysis of the available literature on BOI in TSC according to the PRISMA guidelines. All studies irrespective of participant age that reported on individual and societal measures of disease burden (e.g. health care resource use, costs, quality of life) were included. Results: We identified 33 studies reporting BOI in TSC patients. Most studies (21) reported health care resource use, while 14 studies reported quality of life and 10 studies mentioned costs associated with TSC. Only eight research papers reported caregiver BOI. Substantial BOI occurs from most manifestations of the disorder, particularly from pharmacoresistant epilepsy, neuropsychiatric, renal and skin manifestations. While less frequent, pulmonary complications also lead to a high individual BOI. The range for the mean annual direct costs varied widely between 424 and 98,008 International Dollar purchasing power parities (PPP-$). Brain surgery, end-stage renal disease with dialysis, and pulmonary complications all incur particularly high costs. There is a dearth of information regarding indirect costs in TSC. Mortality overall is increased compared to general population; and most TSC related deaths occur as a result of complications from seizures as well as renal complications. Long term studies report mortality between 4.8 and 8.3% for a follow-up of 8 to 17.4 years. Conclusions: TSC patients and their caregivers have a high burden of illness, and TSC patients incur high costs in health care systems. At the same time, the provision of inadequate treatment that does not adhere to published guidelines is common and centralized TSC care is received by no more than half of individuals who need it, especially adults. Further studies focusing on the cost effectiveness and BOI outcomes of coordinated TSC care as well as of new treatment options such as mTOR inhibitors are necessary.

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Author:Johann Philipp ZöllnerORCiDGND, David Neal FranzGND, Christoph HertzbergORCiDGND, Rima Nabbout, Felix RosenowORCiDGND, Matthias SauterORCiDGND, Susanne Schubert-BastORCiDGND, Adelheid Wiemer-KruelORCiD, Adam StrzelczykORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-531202
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-019-1258-3
ISSN:1750-1172
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31964424
Parent Title (English):Orphanet journal of rare diseases
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2020
Date of first Publication:2020/01/21
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2020/03/16
Volume:15
Issue:1, Art. 23
Page Number:31
First Page:1
Last Page:31
Note:
Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
HeBIS-PPN:464893593
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0