Abstract
ABSTRACTIntroduction:It has been more than a year since the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Brazil, and its most problematic feature is the oversaturation of the healthcare system capacity. Urolithiasis is a disease that requires timely and appropriate management. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic in hospital admissions for urolithiasis in the Brazilian public healthcare system.Materials and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, hospital admissions were obtained from the Brazilian Public Health Information system. All hospital admissions associated with urolithiasis diagnosis (ICD-10 N20) between March 2017 and February 2021 were analyzed.Results:During the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a significant decrease in hospital admissions (p<0.0001). More than 20.000 patients probably did not have the opportunity to undergo their surgeries. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on women's admissions was significantly more intense than for men, reducing from 48.91% to 48.36% of the total (p=0.0281). The extremes of age seemed to be more affected, with patients younger than 20 years and older than 60 years having a significant reduction in access to hospital services (p=0.033).Conclusions:In conclusion, we have noticed a considerable reduction in overall admissions for the treatment of urolithiasis in the Brazilian public healthcare system during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Women and individuals older than 60 years were especially affected. In contrast, we noted a rise in urgent procedures, comparing with the average of the corresponding period of the three previous years. Recovery plans will be needed while returning to activities to handle the impounded surgical volume.
Highlights
It has been more than a year since the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Brazil, and its most problematic feature is the oversaturation of the healthcare system capacity
The present study aimed to evaluate the adverse effects of the pandemic in hospital admissions due to urolithiasis in the Brazilian public healthcare system
From 2017 to 2019, a mean increment of 6.4% hospital admissions was observed, reaching 90.170 events. These data reinforce previous surveys demonstrating a progressive increase in urolithiasis admissions over the years in Brazil [12]
Summary
It has been more than a year since the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Brazil, and its most problematic feature is the oversaturation of the healthcare system capacity. The covid-19 outbreak has affected nearly every aspect of daily life worldwide, especially in hospitalized patients requiring rehabilitation [1, 2]. This acute respiratory syndrome is caused by a newly identified β-coronavirus, the SARS-COV-2, which started in December 2019 in Wuhan, China [3]. It has been more than a year since the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Brazil (February 25th, 2020), and that the World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic (March 11th, 2020). Most of them focused on a short-term crisis (12-16 weeks), whereas Covid-19 has revealed itself more as a long-standing healthcare challenge
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