Breast plastic surgeries in the SUS grow by more than 50% in ten years

In 2020, the height of the health crisis caused by Covid-19, only 4,547 breast operations were recorded, half of what had been routinely performed.

The numbers are part of a survey released by the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery - Rio de Janeiro Regional (SBCP-RJ), during the 45th Carioca Plastic Surgery Conference. The calculation includes procedures indicated for breast reconstruction and the treatment of different changes in the structure of the breast.

The survey shows that, in ten years, the SUS approved 90,648 breast plastic surgeries. The states with the highest record of this type of intervention were:

São Paulo - 30,265 operations; Minas Gerais - 9,836; Rio de Janeiro - 9,115; Rio Grande do Sul - 6 thousand; Bahia - 5,731.

Of the total records analyzed, 74,619 correspond to non-aesthetic female breast plastic surgery, responsible for 82.3% of hospitalizations.

The group includes medically indicated surgeries to correct congenital deformities, important asymmetries, breast hypertrophy associated with pain and physical limitations and sequelae caused by diseases or treatments.

The data also shows 12,600 hospitalizations for post-mastectomy breast reconstruction, with prosthesis implantation, in addition to 3,429 hospitalizations related to post-total mastectomy breast reconstruction.

Concentration in the Southeast

Southeastern states accounted for 50,848 hospitalizations, equivalent to 56.1% of all non-aesthetic and reconstructive breast procedures carried out by the SUS between 2016 and 2025.

Alone, the state of São Paulo accounted for a third of national records. Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro appear next. Among the other regions, the South had 9,098 hospitalizations; the Northeast, 15,985; the Midwest, 5,695; and the North, 3,022.