ORIGINAL ARTICLE VALVE SURGERY!results of the brazilian public health system Kleber do Espirito Santo Freire a

Purpose: Description of hospitalization, mortality rates and cost of heart valve surgery performed by Brazilian Public Health System from 2008 to 2013. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational descriptive study about the procedures of valve surgeries performed in Brazil, from January 2008 to December 2013, by region and federative unit. The study was conducted using the electronic database of Health System Information (Datasus). Results: In the period of study, the total authorizations for hospital admissions for heart valve surgery in Brazil was 65,138 with an average of 10,586 per year. The Southeast region had the highest number of admission and the North the least. The Southeast region concentrated about 45 % of valve surgeries in the last six years, while the North was responsible for only 3.80%. The number of heart valve surgeries in Brazil was 5.8/100,000 inhabitants. The national mortality rate during this procedure was 8.8%. The average cost in dollars applied for each valve surgery in 2012 was U$5,947 per 100,000 inhabitants and about $65,757,845 were spent in hospitalization in 2013. Conclusions: The study showed that Brazil spends a high investment in the surgical treatment of valvular heart disease. It is necessary to reinforce the institution of public health programs aimed to rheumatic heart disease in our country to change that reality