ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a worldwide challenge, and efforts to "flatten the curve," including restrictions imposed by policymakers and medical societies, have forced a reduction in the number of procedures performed in the Brazilian Health Care System. The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) from 2008 to 2020 in the SUS and to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the number of procedures and death rate of CABG performed in 2020 through the database DATASUS. METHODS: This study is based on publicly available material obtained from DATASUS, the Brazilian Ministry of Health's data processing system, on numbers of surgical procedures and death rates. Only isolated CABG procedures were included in our study. We used the TabNet software from the DATASUS website to generate reports. RESULTS: We identified 281,760 CABG procedures performed from January 2008 to December 2020. The average number of procedures until the end of 2019 was of 22,104. During 2020 there was a 25% reduction CABG procedures, to 16,501. There was an increase in the national death rate caused by a statistical significant increase in death rates in Brazil's Southeast and Central-west regions. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic remains a global challenge for Brazil's health care system. During the year of 2020 there was a reduction in access to CABG related to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. There was also an increase in the national CABG death rate.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Brazil/epidemiology , Coronary Artery Bypass , Humans , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The crisis of COVID-19 leaves us a teaching in the form of reminiscence. We do not learn anything new from it, but it reminds us of something we knew and forgot. It shows us in a new light our vulnerability, the impossibility of protecting ourselves perfectly through prediction and control. The sciences do not predict with certainty and the technologies do not manage to have everything under control, although the former and the latter have many other and worthwhile functions. Ideologies do not see the future, no matter how much they pretend to do so. However, we are not without reliable guidance in deciding our actions. This orientation must be sought in being, not in the future. It is fidelity to our common human nature that must advise us. It is the full realization of our personal being, of our peculiar vocation, that guides us. So, the means for self-realization consists in the development of a virtuous character. The same character that has mitigated the ravages of the pandemic, given that, to some degree, it was already present in many of our fellow citizens. The same that would have alleviated the suffering even more if it had been available in more people and to a greater degree.