Profile of the research activity returned to the Brazilian Congress of Thoracic Surgery--Chest 2009

To increase the knowledge of research activity in Thoracic Surgery in Brazil.

We carried out a prospective observational study of the abstracts published in the Annals of the Brazilian Congress of Thoracic Surgery - Thorax 2009, to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the geographic distribution and type of home institutions of abstracts, the types of studies and themes addressed.

We published 182 abstracts, 174 (95.60%) of interventionist nature. There were three foreign abstracts, all from a single Italian institution. As for the types of studies, we observed 108 trials, 67 case reports and seven experimental studies. Pulmonary resection (14.29%) was the most frequent theme, followed by lung cancer, hyperhidrosis and tracheal disorders (10.44%), trauma (7.14%) and mediastinum (6.04%). Public institutions participated with 68.16% of the abstracts, private institutions with 11.17% and the philanthropic entities with 20.67%; the Pontifical Catholic Universities (11.00%) and the Santas Casas--Holy Homes (7.70 %)--had a significant involvement in Thoracic Surgery research in Brazil.

Public institutions are mainly responsible for research activity in Thoracic Surgery in Brazil, which is more concentrated in the state of São Paulo (34.07%). One third of this activity is represented by case reports and, although there is wide variation in topics covered, pulmonary resection is the most frequent theme.