Patients who contract COVID-19 after total joint arthroplasty may be at increased risk for complications, including death, according to published results.
Nathanael D. Heckmann, MD, and colleagues at the Keck School of Medicine of USC studied 712 patients who had primary elective total hip or total knee arthroplasty and then contracted COVID-19 at an average time of 117 days after THA and 128 days after TKA. Researchers also analyzed a matched cohort of 4,272 patients who had TJA with no subsequent COVID-19 diagnosis. Outcomes included non-home discharge, pulmonary embolism (PE),