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Vets Pioneer New Techniques for Limbs

Fusing metal with bone is helping cats and dogs walk again

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 27, 2007 3:09 PM CDT

(Newser) – Cutting-edge vets have developed new prosthetics for disabled animals that could bode well for human amputees, Time reports. The most exciting technique is called osseointegration—a procedure in which a porous prosthesis is inset into the bone, which then grows into the metallic holes, making a strong anchor onto which a prosthesis can be attached.

Softer muscle and skin tissue that grows into the pores also seals it against infection, which is a chronic problem with prosthesis-wearers. Osseointegration has already worked for half a dozen animals.The new techniques are particularly important because the number of human amputees is expected to jump 40% by 2020, including Iraq war veterans and patients who lose limbs to diabetes.

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((c) rochelle, et. al.)

In this July 24, 2007 photo released by the Suffolk County SPCA in Smithtown, N.Y., an injured six-month-old female pit bull is shown. The dog was rescued from the Central Islip, N.Y., home of Derick... (Associated Press)

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Vets Pioneer New Techniques for Limbs