A local teen looks back on her major back surgery to help fix her scoliosis.

But patients and hundreds of U.S. hospitals have put elective surgeries on hold because of COVID-19. Researchers predict the number of hip replacements to double and the number of knee replacements to increase at least five-fold in the next decade.

CHICAGO, Ill. (Ivanhoe Newswire) As elective surgeries get the green light to resume, some patients may have concerns about getting surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, COVID-19 sidelined her knee replacement surgery twice. As elective surgeries begin to resume, some doctors are recommending their patients have surgery now in case there is another spike in COVID cases. We are testing all of our patients for COVID before they come in for surgery, said Dr. Patel. With the pause in elective surgeries, experts say it may take up to three or four months to resolve the back log of surgeries.