The covid-19 pandemic significantly affected the number of consultations and surgeries related to vision within the Unified Health System (SUS) in 2020. According to data collected by the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology (CBO), from records of the SUS Ambulatory Information System, about 3.7 million consultations were not carried out, a drop of 35%. In the case of surgeries, there was a reduction of 390,000 procedures, a 27% reduction. The comparison is in relation to 2019, the pre-pandemic year.
Without consultations and tests to detect problems early on, thousands of people were harmed. “Certainly, they will receive a report on the state of their eye health with the problems installed in a more advanced state. In this way, the control of these diseases becomes more complex and difficult, with an increase in the possibility of impaired vision, whether total or partial”, evaluates the president of the CBO, José Beniz Neto.
Queries
According to the CBO survey, in 2019, 10.8 million medical consultations were carried out in ophthalmology by the SUS. The following year, the amount dropped to 7.1 million, the biggest drop in absolute terms among all specialties available in the public network, according to the entity. The first two months after the decree of public calamity (April and May 2020) had the worst rates, with a reduction of 74% and 71%, respectively, in total procedures.
In these two months, in 2019, a total of 1.8 million consultations were carried out. In the same period, during the first year of the pandemic, 509 thousand were offered, which represents less than a third. For the CBO, “this result has a direct consequence in the early diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, such as glaucoma, cataract or diabetic retinopathy”.
Surgeries
In the case of surgeries, data from the SIA/SUS also show that, in 2020, in the first year of the pandemic, almost 390,000 surgical procedures were performed on the visual apparatus less than in 2019. In 2020, a little more than 1 million eye surgeries. In the previous year, there was a record of 1.4 million.
In the CBO’s assessment, the protocols that restricted patient access to elective surgeries to expand the care infrastructure for people with covid-19, as well as to reduce exposure to the virus within the units, were the factors that contributed to this situation. of fall in production was installed.
resumption
Data from January to June 2021 suggest a trend of recovery in the volume of consultations, but the rates should not exceed the production of 2019, the last period in which the service was uneventful, predicts the CBO. This is because by the first half of 2019, around 5.2 million ophthalmological consultations had been carried out in the public network. In the current year, in the same period, this total was 4.8 million.
In the assessment of specialists, this improvement in performance is a consequence of advances in vaccination and the greater ease of access for patients to outpatient and hospital care units. In this process of resuming eye care, the survey shows that patients aged 60 to 64 years were the ones who most attended consultations in the first half of 2021, with 534,500 consultations. People between 60 and 74 years old represented 31% of the total consultations made, followed by the group of children under 1 year old occupying fourth place in the ophthalmologic offices, with a total of 412.1 thousand consultations in the analyzed period.
The survey also reveals that the age group from 65 to 69 years was the one that performed the most eye surgeries in the first half of 2021. People over 55 years represent 67% of all surgical procedures performed in the period, totaling 404,000 surgeries in the vision apparatus. Considering the first half of this year, the most commonly performed vision device surgery was phacoemulsification with folding intraocular lens implantation. It corresponds to 37% of the total procedures performed, totaling 265,000 surgeries. Then appear: surgical treatment of pterygium (79.3 thousand) and laser photocoagulation (70.8 thousand).
Between January and July 2021, with the resumption of elective surgeries in hospitals, there was an improvement in the number of surgeries for the vision apparatus, but the scenario is still worrying, in the assessment of the CBO. In this interval, 717.7 thousand procedures were registered, 29% higher than the 555.4 thousand in 2020, but still 13% lower than the 2019 data (829.5 thousand).
In regional terms, the survey shows that the Northeast had the most significant percentage reduction, with 39% fewer surgeries in 2020, compared to the previous year. Next are the Midwest (-34%), the South (-33%) and the Southeast (-22%). The North suffered a deficit of only 1%.
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