Examining the surgical backlog due to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: insights from a scoping review

Autor: Letícia Nunes Campos, Mayte Bryce-Alberti, Ayla Gerk, Sarah K. Hill, Chrystal Calderon, Mehreen Zaigham, Diana D. del Valle, Carol Mita, Sabrina Juran, Júlia Loyola Ferreira, Tarsicio Uribe-Leitz
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Lancet Regional Health. Americas, Vol 40, Iss , Pp 100908- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2667-193X
DOI: 10.1016/j.lana.2024.100908
Popis: Summary: This scoping review assessed the surgical backlog in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) due to COVID-19 and identified mitigation strategies. We searched seven databases for citations from December 2019 to December 2022, focusing on LAC patients with cancelled or postponed procedures. We registered our protocol at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/x2nd8) and adhered to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We included 83 citations covering 23 LAC countries and 19 surgical specialities, with Brazil (67%, 56/83) and transplant surgery (24%, 20/83) being the most documented. Surgical backlogs were mainly reported at the hospital (44%, 37/83) and national levels (38%, 32/83). We identified 58 citations that reported a total of 42 strategies to mitigate the backlog, the most cited being establishing prioritisation criteria for surgical cases (41%, 24/58). Our findings highlight challenges across differing healthcare systems in LAC, including disparities in data availability, surgical capacity, and resource allocation. For instance, while countries like Brazil had extensive data on national surgical backlogs, others lacked comprehensive national-level data. Our review can help inform policymakers and healthcare stakeholders to implement targeted interventions to prepare LAC-based surgical systems for future health emergencies.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals