Total Joint Arthroplasty during Coronavirus Disease-2019 COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemics many orthopedic elective surgeries have been postponed all over the world. There are several guidelines for resuming elective surgeries during this crisis. In our center (Imam Khomeini hospital, Tehran, Iran), we resumed total joint arthroplasty (TJAs) surgeries using preoperative history taking and physical examination. Here, we report our experience. Methods: From February 2020 to August 2020, we included 165 patients who underwent TJA [70 total hip arthroplasty (THA) and 95 total knee arthroplasty (TKA)] in Imam Khomeini hospital, a referral center for COVID-19. We followed each patient from the day of hospitalization to two weeks after discharge by telephone for clinical symptoms of COVID-19. Results: Only one patient became infected with COVID-19 a week after discharge from the hospital, and other patients did not show any sign or symptoms within two weeks after the discharge. Conclusion: We recommend resuming the elective surgeries using a careful physical examination and medical history for all patients, and in suspicious cases, referring to a specialized COVID-19 clinic for further investigation.