Preparation for the next COVID-19 wave: The European Hip Society and European Knee Associates recommendations

The recommendations for planning to continue elective hip and knee arthroplasty during a new phase of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic provide a framework to reduce the risk of a complete shutdown of elective surgery. This involves engaging with hospital managers and other specialities in the planning process. Individuals have responsibilities to themselves, their colleagues, and their families, beyond the actual delivery of elective arthroplasty.

These recommendations follow those from the European Hip Society and European Knee Associates Recommendations for Resuming Elective Hip and Knee Arthroplasty in the Setting of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aim is to help orthopaedic surgeons across Europe (and a wider global audience) with a special interest in elective hip and knee arthroplasty prepare for the resurgence or new outbreak of COVID-19 in their locality. This involves planning resources and mitigation procedures that minimise the negative effects of the necessary restrictions imposed on their patients, their families and themselves.

During the next wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgeons will have personal responsibilities. The actions necessary need to be planned for now. There will be National Guidance and local policies that need to be adhered to including around COVID-19 screening for patients and staff, but surgeons themselves have obligations that must be considered and actioned during the phase between waves.

The preparation for the next wave starts with reviewing the previous wave. Between the waves preparation is needed at a personal, departmental, and hospital level and national levels. At a personal level, there are professional activities that need to be pursued, as well as to the multidisciplinary team and to ones family. During the next wave, accurate data collection with transparent dissemination is essential and needs to be planned for at this stage.

We want to thank the authors:

Simon T. Donell, Martin Thaler, Nicolaas C. Budhiparama, Martin A. Buttaro, Antonia F. Chen, Claudio Diaz-Ledezma, Bruce Gomberg, Michael T. Hirschmann, Theofilos Karachalios, Alexey Karpukhin, Nemandra Amir Sandiford, Hongyi Shao, Reha Tandogan, Bruno Violante, Luigi Zagra & Nanne P. Kort