Osseointegration is a surgical procedure in which a titanium rod is implanted into bone. It has been used for some time in dental and facial prostheses, and efforts are not underway in Europe to perfect the technology for trans-femoral, above-the-knee amputees.
Titanium implants are so promising because the human body almost never rejects one as a foreign object, as sometimes happens with other implants and transplants. As the bone heals, it integrates fully with the titanium rod screwed into it. As a result, a prosthesis can be attached easily without the need to fabricate a custom socket around an amputee's residual limb.
Over the past several years, advances in prosthetic science have enabled prosthetists to make sockets that fit much more comfortably than in the past. Still, a few amputees have a difficult time wearing their prosthesis because of chronic pain or decreased circulation. For them, osseointegration offers a big improvement. However, the procedure has been most successful in younger, healthier people whose bones heal best.
The two greatest barriers to the complete success of osseointegration technology seems to be loosening within the bone cased by the stress of walking, and infection at the site where the implant protrudes through the skin. Efforts to overcome these problems look promising.
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