Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the regional distribution of hospital admission authorizations (AIH), total and average hospitalization cost (AHC), average length of stay, number of deaths and mortality rate related to oncological-orthopedic procedures funded by the Unified Health System (SUS) between 2015 and 2024, with an emphasis on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Ecological study with time series based on data obtained from the SUS Hospital Information System, analyzed by Brazilian regions in the pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Regional differences were calculated using ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis. The impact of the pandemic was analyzed using T-tests and ARIMA with intervention. Statistical analysis was performed in R. RESULTS: 9,120 AIHs were recorded, mostly in the Southeast (4,375) and South (2,252) regions. Multiple regional variations were found for all the variables evaluated. Only the AHC was impacted - there was an increase in costs per procedure; The other variables maintained the trend after the beginning of the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increase in the AHC, we did not observe significant variation in the number of AIH, ALS, and MR when analyzing the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, suggesting that there was no direct impact on the performance of the analyzed procedure. Level of Evidence III; Retrospective (f) comparative study (e).