Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public University laboratories of oral and maxillofacial pathology: A Brazilian multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of diagnoses of oral and maxillofacial lesions in public laboratories after one year of COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Biopsies submitted to histopathologic examination from March 2019 to February 2020 (pre-pandemic period) and from April 2020 to March 2021 (pandemic period) in nine Brazilian public oral pathology laboratories were retrieved and the number of diagnoses, types of lesion, and percentage changes during both periods were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 7389 diagnoses in the pre-pandemic period and 2728 in the pandemic era, indicating a reduction of 63.08%. The reduction was 64.23% for benign lesions and 49.48% for malignant lesions, with a 50.64% reduction in squamous cell carcinoma. The largest decreases were observed in April 2020 and January 2021. CONCLUSION: An important reduction in the diagnoses of benign and malignant lesions was noted in the Brazilian public oral pathology laboratories during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.