Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Nov 18, 2015; 6(10): 750-753
Published online Nov 18, 2015. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v6.i10.750
Conversion total hip arthroplasty: Primary or revision total hip arthroplasty
Ran Schwarzkopf, Mahta Baghoolizadeh
Ran Schwarzkopf, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Adult Reconstruction, NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, NYU Langon Medical Center, New York, NY 10003, United States
Mahta Baghoolizadeh, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, United States
Author contributions: Schwarzkopf R contributed to design, writing, review and revision; Baghoolizadeh M contributed to design, data collection and analysis, writing, revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Mahta Baghoolizadeh has no conflict of interest to declare; Ran Schwarzkopf has no conflict of interest related to this work, but is a consultant for Smith and Nephew, Stryker and Intelijoint.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ran Schwarzkopf, MD, MSc, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Adult Reconstruction, NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, NYU Langone Medical Center, 301 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003, United States. schwarzk@gmail.com
Telephone: +1-212-5986000 Fax: +1-212-2632290
Received: May 14, 2015
Peer-review started: May 16, 2015
First decision: July 10, 2015
Revised: August 11, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: November 18, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Conversion total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a challenging procedure that requires more resources both intraoperatively and postoperatively than primary THA. As such, these procedures should be planned to anticipate the greater needs in the operating room, and for in-patient and follow-up care. Patients undergoing conversion THA should not be likened to patients undergoing primary THA when determining risk stratification and reimbursement rates. We suggest that conversion THA be reclassified in the same group with revision THA as a step towards better allocation of hospital resources.