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Introduction: Studies have shown that both perioperative and anesthesia-related cardiac arrest (CA) and mortality rates are much higher in developing countries than in developed countries. This review aimed to compare the rates of perioperative and anesthesia-related CA and mortality during 2 time periods in Brazil. Methods: A systematic review with meta-analysis of full-text Brazilian observational studies was conducted by searching the Medline, EMBASE, LILACS and SciELO databases up to January 29, 2020. The primary outcomes were perioperative CA and mortality rates and the secondary outcomes included anesthesia-related CA and mortality events rates up to 48 postoperative hours. Results: Eleven studies including 719,273 anesthetic procedures, 962 perioperative CAs, 134 anesthesia-related CAs, 1,239 perioperative deaths and 29 anesthesia-related deaths were included. The event rates were evaluated in 2 time periods: pre-1990 and 1990–2020. Perioperative CA rates (per 10,000 anesthetics) decreased from 39.87 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 34.60–45.50) before 1990 to 17.61 (95% CI: 9.21–28.68) in 1990–2020 (P < 0.0001), while the perioperative mortality rate did not alter (from 19.25 [95% CI: 15.64–23.24] pre-1990 to 25.40 [95% CI: 13.01–41.86] in 1990–2020; P = 0.1984). Simultaneously, the anesthesia-related CA rate decreased from 14.39 (95% CI: 11.29–17.86) to 3.90 (95% CI: 2.93–5.01; P < 0.0001), while there was no significant difference in the anesthesia-related mortality rate (from 1.75 [95% CI: 0.76–3.11] to 0.67 [95% CI: 0.09–1.66; P = 0.5404). Conclusions: This review demonstrates an important reduction in the perioperative CA rate over time in Brazil, with a large and consistent decrease in the anesthesia-related CA rate; however, there were no significant differences in perioperative and anesthesia-related mortality rates between the assessed time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]