Last Year's Patient Lecture

Imagine your life without a part of your arm or leg. What would that be like? Can you still get on the bus or train? How do you carry your laundry to the washing machine? And how do you read a book and turn a page?

Those are the kind of challenges amputees face daily. They lost a part of their extremities as a result of trauma or tumor. The rehabilitation physicians and prosthetists provide them with artificial arms, hands, legs and feet.

A prosthesis is a valuable solution for most of the patients, but in some cases the skin around the prothesis remains painful or there are burn wounds and the prothesis irritates. Besides this, the connection of the prothesis might be unstable and if for example the leg prothesis rotates patients may fall.  This results in a constant search for improved prosthetics. A new treatment option after amputation is to connect a titanium implant to the bone, let it stick out of the skin and rigidly connect the prosthesis to the arm or leg.

In this lecture we introduced you to Peter, who experiences these kinds of problems. Peter received a double osseointegration implant in his forearm, and he shared his story and explained about the function of his prosthetic hand. The surgery was performed by Prof. Paul Jutte. Together with Peter, he enlightened us about the clinical aspects of this development. During this lecture it became clear what impact osseointegration can have in quality of life of a patient.