Alteração do perfil epidemiológico das conjuntivites no Hospital Banco de Olhos de Porto Alegre após o início da pandemia da COVID-19

. ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the profile of the cases of conjuntivitis treated in the emergency department of the Banco de Olhos Hospital, emphasizing the infectious conjunctivitis, and compare before and after the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic and social isolation, both in public and private health care system. Methods: A retrospective and transversal study where electronic files of the patients who visited the emergency department between March and June of 2019 and 2020 were reviewed. Results: A significant reduction in the number of consultations at the emergency department was observed after the beginning of the pandemic. From March to June 2019, 21.678 visits were made. In the same period of 2020, this number was 14.194, a drop of 34.5%. The rate of visits having conjunctivitis as main cause also dropped significantly. Infectious conjunctivitis was the one who showed the highest decrease. In 2019, it was responsible for 30.2% of the visits and, in 2020, for 15.5%. There were no changes regarding the gender, but a significantly increase in patients’ age was observed. Conclusion: The study showed a dramatic reduction in the number of visits at the emergency department of ophthalmology regarding infectious conjunctivitis after the beginning of the pandemic, and we believe that the cause is related with an increase of hygiene care, social isolation and restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.