Strength

Last week marked 1 year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, massive earthquakes caused mass destruction and tens of thousands of casualties in Turkey and Syria, and a huge winter storm resulted in over a million people losing power across the United States. I have been struck by the strength of the people who have faced these calamitous situations. It is a reminder to me to be thankful for what we have and the incredible blessing we enjoy being able to practice orthopaedic surgery. Joint replacement is arguably one of the most cost-effective interventions in all of health care, restoring mobility and quality of life for the overwhelming majority of our patients. We have been met with challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, including staffing and supply-chain shortages. Physicians and other providers have suffered burnout, and many have quit work altogether. I am confident that we will remain resilient and emerge stronger, having met the challenges with a focus on quality patient care.

The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting is just around the corner, to be held in Las Vegas, NV March 7-11, 2023. Congratulations to the Program Committee for their outstanding work in organizing what promises to be a superb meeting. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Spring Meeting will be held in Chicago May 4-6, 2023. The case-based discussions in the breakout sessions are always stimulating and informative. I hope you will consider attending both, for the educational and networking opportunities these events provide.

There are some very interesting articles in this issue, with practical application. Tarity et al [1] report on femoral insufficiency fractures after total knee arthroplasty. They found that elderly women with osteoporosis were at highest risk and recommended consideration of stem fixation or use of cruciate-retaining implants in this patient group. Schafer et al [2] report on 76 patients who underwent fixation of a greater trochanteric fracture after THA, with a 23.7% nonunion rate and 28 patients requiring reoperation for plate removal, highlighting the challenges of managing this particularly vexing problem. Wang et al [3] add to the literature regarding the advantages of multimodal opioid-sparing analgesia for total knee arthroplasty, finding that peripheral nerve blocks resulted in a higher rate of same-day discharge and lower opioid utilization. I hope you will take time to read the articles in this issue and share with colleagues and trainees.

Thanks as always for the tremendous support of our fantastic team of reviewers, editorial board, Taylor Bowen, the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons staff, and our partners at Elsevier, for continuing to make Arthroplasty Today an increasingly relevant journal.

Conflicts of interest

G. Golladay reports receiving royalties from Stryker, Inc. and royalties and financial or material support from AAKHS, is a member of the medical/orthopaedic publications editorial/governing board of Arthroplasty Today and Journal of Arthroplasty (elite reviewer), and is a board member of the AAKHS Publications Society and Virginia Orthopaedic Society.

For full disclosure statements refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artd.2023.101135.