More than 40,000 Australians could have missed out on joint replacement surgeries in the pandemic years

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-06-11 12:20

Australia; VIC; QLD; SA

Image by Victoria from Pixabay

Just over 42,000 fewer elective joint replacement surgeries than expected were done in Australia from 2020-2022, according to Australian researchers looking at the potential backlog of surgeries the COVID-19 pandemic caused. The team used data on elective joint replacement surgeries dating back to 2012 to project how many would have likely been done from 2020-2022 had the pandemic not happened, then calculated the shortfall based on the number of surgeries that were done. The researchers say the greatest shortfall was in Victoria, and the national annual caseload of surgeries would need to increase by 16% to clear the backlog by the end of this year.

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Research Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), Web page

Journal/
conference: Medical Journal of Australia

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Deakin University, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI)

Funder: None reported

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