Orthopaedic Care in Brazil: Universal Coverage, Unequal Access, and Future Directions

➢ Brazil has one of the world's largest universal public health systems, the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, or SUS), serving a population of more than 200 million people.➢ Brazil has strong orthopaedic training, an active national society, and a growing research culture.➢ Orthopaedic and trauma care in Brazil is delivered through a mixed public-private model that includes high-volume public hospitals, university centers, private hospitals, and regional referral centers.➢ The major national challenge is not only the availability of orthopaedic expertise but inequality of access, particularly between major urban centers and underserved North, Northeast, and interior regions.➢ Managing a high-volume of trauma cases is a hallmark of Brazilian orthopaedics, with major public trauma centers handling complex injuries, late-presenting cases, and cases of infection or nonunion, while facing barriers to rehabilitation.➢ The reality of orthopaedics in Brazil demonstrates the need for more robust registries and multicenter collaborations, and better integration of outcome data.