Following reports that elective surgeries being deferred or cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, the orthopedic devices market has been highly affected. Against this backdrop, the global orthopedic procedures are set to decrease by over 20% over the course of this whole year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Tina Deng, MSc, Principal Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The pandemic will have a lasting impact on the orthopedics market. GlobalData expects it may take over six month to return to 90% of the pre-COVID level of elective orthopedic surgeries globally. Every country has a unique situation in terms of COVID-19 prevalence, healthcare infrastructure, staffing capabilities, and personal protection equipment supply; therefore, the recovery rates vary widely.

“While countries like Germany and China demonstrated sharp V-shaped quick recoveries, most countries gradually made progress back to normalization. The UK, India, and Latin America lagged in terms of recovery, creating a drag on overall global performance.”

Within the orthopedic space, the knee market has been severely hit by COVID-19, followed by the hip market. An analysis of GlobalData’s monthly SKU data analysis reveals that the hip and knee market dropped by approximately 70% in Q2 in the US compared to last year.

The hip market is recovering faster than the knee business, because of the less-elective nature of hip procedures. The top non-elective procedures include traumas, amputations, and oncological procedures. Dislocations and fractures, including hip, pelvis, and forearms, should only be considered for treatment in urgent cases.

As a result, most companies reported mild revenue declines in their trauma business. However, the trauma market continued to be under pressure due to fewer road accidents and reduced physical activities related to widespread quarantines.

Deng concludes: “Most healthcare facilities have adequate stockpiles of the necessary equipment for a potential second wave; as a result, healthcare systems in general are better equipped to address the pandemic in the coming months than they were early this year. This gives hope to the market in the upcoming quarters.”