Background: Brazil has the world’s largest public organ transplant program, which was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate differences in solid organ transplants and rejection episodes during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the five years before the pandemic in the country. Methods: A seven-year database was built by downloading data from the DATASUS server. The pandemic period was defined as March 2020 to December 2021. The pre-pandemic period was from January 2015 to March 2020. Results: During the pandemic, the number of solid organ transplants decreased by 19.3% in 2020 and 22.6% in 2021 compared to 2019. We found a decrease for each evaluated organ, which was more pronounced for lung, pancreas, and kidney transplants. The seasonal plot of rejection data indicated a high rejection rate between 2018 and 2021. There was also an 18% (IRR 1.18 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.37), p = 0.04) increase in the rejection rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The total number of organ transplants performed in 2021 represents a setback of six years. Transplant procedures were concentrated in the Southeast region of the country, and a higher proportion of rejections occurred during the pandemic. Together, these findings could have an impact on transplant procedures and outcomes in Brazil.
CITATION STYLE
de Andrade, L. G. M., Barbosa, A. M. P., da Rocha, N. C., de Almeida Cardoso, M. M., de Almeida, J. T. C., Machado-Rugolo, J., … Ferreira, G. F. (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Solid Organ Transplant and Rejection Episodes in Brazil’s Unified Healthcare System. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11216581
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