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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected medical practice, and changes in healthcare activities were needed to minimize the overload and avoid healthcare systems collapse. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on surgical procedures in Brazil.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a descriptive study of the number of hospitalizations for surgical procedures in Brazil from 2016 to 2020. Data were collected from the Brazilian Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System (DATASUS). Analyzes were performed according to the type of procedure, geographical region, subgroups of surgical procedures, and the number of surgeries from 2020 were compared with the average from 2016 to 2019.ResultsThere were 4,009,116 hospitalizations for surgical procedures in the Brazilian Public Health System in 2020. When comparing it to the average of hospitalizations from 2016-2019, there was a decrease of 14.88% [95%IC (14.82-14.93)]. Decrease rates were 34.82% [95%IC (34.73-34.90)] for elective procedures and 1.11% [95%IC (1.07-1.13)] for urgent procedures. Decrease rates were similar in all the five regions of the country (average 14.17%). Surgical procedure subgroups with the highest decrease rates were endocrine gland surgery (48.03%), breast surgery (40.68%), oral and maxillofacial surgery (37.03%), surgery of the upper airways, face, head and neck (36.06%), and minor surgeries and surgeries of skin, subcutaneous tissue and mucosa (33.16%). Conclusion: The overload of healthcare facilities has demanded a reduction of non-urgent activities to prevent a collapse of healthcare systems, resulting in a decrease in elective surgeries. Recommendations about the performance of surgical procedures were made, and continuous refinements of these recommendations are encouraged.

Introduction: Peer-review plays a pivotal role in optimizing the quality of research articles. However, new strategies need to be implemented in the peer-review system to enhance research rigor, accurate reporting, and data reliability, such as increasing diversity among the reviewers through the inclusion of undergraduate students as reviewers. We aim to report the peer-review policies, procedures, and practices of a medical student-led journal editorial board in 2020, specifically detailing the challenges and the role of the students in the peer-review process. Methods: Through validated online training courses and peer education methodology, the students built capacity regarding the relevance of peer-review, its models, structure, and the publication process. The peer-review process was blinded for authors and reviewers, emphasizing the importance of impartiality and the minimization of identification bias. Guidelines for authors and reviewers were developed to add standardization to the submission and review processes, based on journals’ recommendations and reporting guidelines. Results: From July to August of 2020, the student-led journal received 254 submitted manuscripts from all five Brazilian geographic regions, compared to the 72 submissions received in the previous edition. After review, 50 manuscripts were accepted with major or minor corrections. Discussion: Peer-review contributes to the construction of content, and is the foundation for evidence-based medicine. In addition, it improves ethical thinking, communication skills, and critical appraisal abilities, also desirable in the academic and professional spheres. The medical student peer-review process has numerous benefits and should be promoted and further studied as a potential strategy for building capacity in peer-review.

COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected medical practice, and conducts o minimize the overload of healthcare services were necessary. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the pandemic in the practice of surgical procedures in Brazil. This is a descriptive study with data about hospitalizations for surgical procedures in Brazil from 2016 to 2020, collected from the Department of Informatics of Brazil’s Unified Health System (DATASUS). Primary analysis describes the variations in the number of elective, urgent and other types of surgical procedures performed during this period, by comparing the mean number of hospitalizations from 2016 to 2019 with the absolute number from 2020. Secondary analysis describe the variations in hospitalizations for surgical procedures during this period in each of Brazil’s geographical regions, and variations in different surgical procedure subgroups. There was a decrease of 14.88% [95% CI: 14,82-14,93] in hospitalizations for surgical procedures in 2020, when comparing to the mean between 2016-2019. Decrease rates were 34.82% [95% CI: 34,73-34,90] for elective procedures and 1.11% [95% CI: 1.07-1.13] for urgent procedures. Surgical procedure subgroups with highest decrease rates were endocrine gland surgery, breast surgery, oral-maxillofacial surgery and surgery of upper airways, face, head and neck. The overload of healthcare facilities demanded reductions in non-urgent activities to prevent services’ collapse. Further studies are needed to evaluate the social and clinical impact of such reductions and support the development of precise criteria defining which procedures should be prioritized.