COVID‐19 impact on joint replacement surgery in Australia in 2020: a nationwide perspective.

Delaying elective JR surgery prolongs pain and disability, and challenges the notion of what is considered "elective" surgery. Joint replacement (JR) is one of the most common and successful surgical procedures performed in Australia, with over 115 000 primary procedures undertaken in 2019.1 In 2020, most JR surgery was suspended in late March in response to Federal Government directives to allow only emergency and urgent surgery, which did not include elective JR.2,3 This suspension was gradually eased over subsequent months, which varied by jurisdiction. The Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) is uniquely positioned to monitor the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions on JR surgery across the country. [Extracted from the article]