Increased Home Death Due to Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Cardiovascular diseases constitute an important group of causes of death in the country. Ischemic heart diseases that are the main causes of cardiopulmonary arrest, leading to an impact on the mortality of the cardiovascular diseases in the health system.

Objective: Assess the number of home deaths by cardiopulmonary arrest notified by the Mobile Emergency Medical Service (SAMU) in March 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Methods: Observational study carried out from the analysis of cardiopulmonary arrest mortality data of citizens assisted by SAMU in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Social and clinical characteristics and occurrence information of the patients were analyzed. The mortality rate due to cardiopulmonary arrest in relation to the total number of attendances was assessed. A significance level of 95% was considered.

Results: There was increase of home deaths due to cardiopulmonary arrest in March 2020 compared to March 2018 (p<0.001) and March 2019 (p=0.050). Of the deaths reported in 2020, 63.8% of the patients were aged 60 years or older, 63.7% of the occurrences were performed in the afternoon and approximately 87% of the cardiopulmonary arrest notified had associated clinical comorbidities, with systemic arterial hypertension and heart failure represented by 22.87% and 13.03% of the reported cases, respectively. The majority of the evaluated sample of this study did not have any medical care follow-up (88.7%).

Conclusion: Considering the increase in the number of the deaths, we suggest reflections and readjustments regarding the monitoring of chronic non-transmissible diseases during a pandemic, as well as improvements in death surveillance. (Arq Bras Cardiol. 2021; 116(2):266-271).