LAUSR

As we send this issue to press, in the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is still wreaking havoc nationally and globally. Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is headquartered in New York City, which for weeks was at the epicenter of the crisis. Now, as our institution is returning to a “new normal” and resuming elective orthopedic surgeries, other cities are seeing surges in infections and deaths. This virus is not yet in our past. Amid the many upheavals to emerge from the pandemic, our journal has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of submissions, so many that we will publish an extra issue later this year devoted to the extraordinary response at HSS and elsewhere to the challenges posed by COVID-19. In this issue, we feature nine systematic reviews, each examining questions relevant to musculoskeletal specialties. In a CME offering, Sallam and colleagues investigated whether the type of femoral component fixation affects rates of complications after hip hemiarthroplasty (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-02009769-1). Their review and meta-analysis found cemented hemiarthroplasty to be associated with less pain postoperatively than uncemented hemiarthroplasty. Kirven and colleagues reviewed the literature for studies examining psychological distress after major orthopedic trauma (https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11420-019-09731-w). They found that early amputation resulted in lower rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than limb salvage and that both individual and peergroup counseling interventions were effective in reducing PTSD risk. Gu and colleagues sought to assess the validity and reliability of the acetabular and femoral bone loss classification systems most often used in total hip arthroplasty (THA)—the Paprosky, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and Saleh and Gross systems (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-02009766-4). They found decidedly mixed results, commenting that despite advances in recent decades in orthopedics, such classification systems have not evolved since the 1990s. The researchers state that “improvements to these systems are necessary in order for them to be as useful as possible” in THA. Nadeem and colleagues looked at failed repairs of superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) tears, a common shoulder injury (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11420-019-09700-3). Their review found the most common reason for failed SLAP repair to be persistent postoperative mechanical symptoms, with a high success rate for revision surgery for failed SLAP repair and significantly higher return-to-activity rates after biceps tenodesis than after arthroscopic revision SLAP repair. The sudden increase in submissions to HSS Journal that has occurred during the pandemic is, perhaps, a bit of silver lining in this looming dark cloud. It is evidence that during this crisis, as so many musculoskeletal specialists have been forced to put aside their practices, they have turned to scholarship. As this current issue of the journal demonstrates, systematic reviews of the literature are important sources of evidence for clinicians that can involve a time-consuming process, one that is often difficult to undertake for those pressed by the demands of clinical practice. The unwanted and sudden free time resulting from shut down during the pandemic may produce valuable information for years to come. As always, we are excited to review your work.