Impact of COVID-19 on Surgical Procedures for Stress Urinary Incontinence in the Brazilian Public Health System

This is a very interesting study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the surgical management of stress urinary incontinence in Brazil. As described in the abstract, the number of surgeries was monitored for three years using official data from the Ministry of Health of a country of continental dimensions such as Brazil in the period before the pandemic and during the pandemic.

The impact was substantial across the country, regardless of the HDI of the region. However, a very concerning finding of this study, which was not highlighted because it was not the main outcome, was that the number of procedures for surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence in Brazil is much lower than in other countries when adjusted for population size.

This finding suggests that Brazilian women with stress urinary incontinence are likely undertreated, at least from a surgical perspective. This is at least partly due to the lack of access to the specialized public health system, especially in the low HDI regions of the country. We hope that this study will help raise awareness among public administrators of the need to improve surgical treatment of women with stress urinary incontinence in our country.

Written by: Alexandre Fornari, Division of Urology, Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

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