The Impact of COVID-19 on Total Joint Arthroplasty Fellowship Training

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges in surgical training especially in specialties with high elective case volume. We hypothesized that case volume during total joint arthroplasty fellowship training would decrease by 25% given widespread economic shutdowns encountered during the fourth quarter of the 2019-2020 academic year. METHODS: Case logs from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were obtained for accredited total joint arthroplasty fellowships (2017-2018 to 2020-2021). Case volumes were extracted and summarized as means ± SD. Student’s t tests were used for inter-year comparisons. RESULTS: One hundred and eighty three arthroplasty fellows from 24 accredited fellowships were included. There was a 14% year-over-year decrease in total case volume during the 2019-2020 academic year (390 ± 108 vs 453 ± 128, P < .001). Case volume rebounded during the 2020-2021 academic year to 465 ± 93 (19% increase, P < .001). Case categories with the most significant percentage declines in 2019-2020 were primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA, −23%), revision total hip arthroplasty (THA, −19%), revision TKA (rTKA, −11%), and primary THA (−10%). CONCLUSION: There was a 14% overall decrease in arthroplasty case volume during the 2019-2020 academic year, which correlated with the widespread economic shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain elective case categories like primary TKA experienced the greatest negative impact. Results from this study may inform prospective trainees and faculty during future national emergencies.