Comparative analysis between bone-guided (endo-exo) prostheses and soft-tissue guided shaft prostheses for rehabilitation after thigh amputation, with special emphasis on its socio-economic aspects

Author Info

Christian Blöchle Fungwe Jah Horst H. Aschof

Corresponding Author

Fungwe Jah
Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery, University of Hamburg, Germany

A B S T R A C T

Background: A prompt and effective rehabilitation after a thigh amputation has significant advantages in terms of the functional and psychological acceptance of the prosthetic restoration. As at now the rehabilitation after thigh amputation is carried mainly by soft tissue guided shaft prostheses. Over the years, various authors reported on a variety of problems with shaft prosthetics. In Sweden, for example, an alternative procedure was developed based on dental implantology in the 1990s, in which the transmission of thigh stump to exo-prosthesis takes place by means of an intramedullary, percutaneously guided implant (OPRA procedure). OPRA stands for "Osseointegrated Prosthesis for the Rehabilitation of Amputees". This special procedure involving two surgical steps was first performed in 1999 in Lübeck. There are now more than 200 patients worldwide with Endo-exo-femoral prosthetics. Methods/Design: During a period of 14 years (1999-2013), 75 patients were treated with the endo-exofemoral prosthesis in the Sana Clinic Lübeck. Patients were included in the study who had the endo-exofemoral prosthesics for at least 12 months and who reliably had regular check-ups. Based on this, a random sample of a total of twenty-one (21) patients treated with the endo-exo-femoral prosthesis between 1999 and 2012 was obtained. Since a total of nineteen of the twenty-one patients had experience with soft tissue guided shaft prostheses, we took the opportunity to ask them about their subjective experience with the prosthetics. For this purpose, a questionnaire was drawn up with 49 very extensive questions. The content of the questions relates to endo-exo prostheses and soft tissue guided shaft prostheses, family, socioeconomic, quality of life and patient satisfaction. Conclusion: Based on this analysis, the Integral Leg Prosthesis (ILP) is of great benefit in the health and socio-economic aspects of rehabilitation

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Thu 07, Mar 2019
Accepted: Tue 09, Apr 2019
Published: Fri 19, Apr 2019

Copyright

© 2023 Fungwe Jah. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JSR.2019.01.03