Nearly one million Brazilians were morbidly obese in 2013. Bariatric surgery is an option for sustained weight loss, and the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) had provided 50,000 such procedures as of 2014. The SUS database does not provide anthropometric and comorbidity data on these patients, so the aim of the current study was to perform a systematic review to assess the profile of SUS patients that underwent bariatric surgery from 1998 to 2014. The MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO, and Scopus databases were searched, and the methodological quality of the included articles was assessed. Of the 1,591 identified studies, 39 were selected, 95% of which were observational. Patients had a mean age of 41.4 years and mean body mass index of 48.6kg/m2; 21% were males, 61% hypertensive, 22% diabetics, and 31% presented sleep apnea. When compared to international study samples, SUS patients showed similar a anthropometric profile and comorbidities but higher prevalence of hypertension. The studies' low methodological quality suggests caution in interpreting the results.

BackgroundBariatric surgery is an option for sustained weight loss for the morbidly obese patient. In Brazil coexists the Unified Health System (SUS) with universal coverage and from which depend 150 million Brazilians and supplemental health security, predominantly private, with 50 million beneficiaries.AimTo compare access, in-hospital mortality, length of stay and costs for patients undergoing bariatric surgery, assisted in one or another system.MethodsData from DATASUS and IBGE were used for SUS patients' and database from one health plan of southeastern Brazil for the health insurance patients.ResultsBetween 2001 and 2010 there were 24,342 and 4,356 surgeries performed in SUS and in the health insurance company, respectively. The coverage rates for surgeries performed in 2010 were 5.3 and 91/100.000 individuals in SUS and health insurance respectively. The rate of in-hospital mortality in SUS, considering the entire country, was 0.55 %, 0.44 % considering SUS Southeast, and 0.30 % for the health insurance. The costs of surgery in the SUS and in the health insurance trend to equalization over the years.ConclusionDespite differences in access and characteristics that may compromise the outcome of bariatric surgery, patients treated at the Southeast SUS had similar rate of in-hospital mortality compared to the health insurance patients.

The 30-day mortality post-RYGB is similar to the rates found in developed countries and much lower than the rates found for patients assisted by the public health system in Brazil. In addition to age and clinical factors, the results suggest that mortality and longer hospital stay are strong and inversely related to surgeon's experience.

Results indicate that costs and hospital admissions after bariatric surgery increase following this procedure, even when elective interventions are excluded. Healthcare providers and policy makers need to be aware that a decrease in obesity-related diseases following bariatric surgery does not reduce healthcare use and costs.

OBJECTIVE:The article describes the strategies adopted by the Brazilian Longitudinal Study for Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) for participation and retention of subjects. This is key to ensure internal validity of longitudinal studies, and to identify, investigate, and ascertain outcomes of interest. METHODS:The follow-up strategies include annual telephone contacts with new assessments and interviews every three to four years this approach aims to identify transient outcomes (reversible or not), permanent outcomes as well as complications related to the progression of major diseases -cardiovascular diseases and diabetes -to be studied. RESULTS:Telephone interviews are designed to monitor subjects' health status and to identify potential health-related events such as hospital admissions, medical visits or pre-selected medical procedures. Subjects are also encouraged to report to the ELSA-Brasil team any new health-related events. When a potential event is identified, a thorough investigation is carried out to collect relevant information about that event from medical records. All data are blinded and reviewed and analyzed by a medical expert committee. Incident outcome ascertainment follows well-established international criteria to ensure data comparability and avoid misclassification. In addition to these strategies, the occurrence of health-related events is also investigated through linkage of secondary databases, such as national mortality and hospital admission databases.CONCLUSIONS: Accurate identification of outcomes will allow to estimating their incidence in the study cohort and to investigate the effect of the exposures studied in the ELSA-Brasil at baseline and at its subsequent waves.